Santa Barbara Fighting Back School-Based Mentoring Program Enhancement

This solicitation invites eligible applicants to propose research and evidence-based enhancements to mentoring programs based on three strategies: (1) involving the parents and family in activities and services, (2) delivering structured activities and programs for the mentoring matches, and (3) developing training and support for mentors. Research studies and evaluations of best practices have indicated that mentoring programs that provide multiple modes of treatment addressing both individual and environmental characteristics tend to be the most effective. This initiative is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. No. 111-8.

The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse will enhance their current mentoring program in this initiative's Focus Area 2 - adding or enhancing the structured activities or opportunities for the mentor and mentoring participants. The Fighting Back School Based Mentoring Program is a 14-year initiative of the Santa Barbara Fighting Back community partnership. This project targets youth aged 8 to 14 in several high risk neighborhoods in Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, California. The youth come from families in which one or more members is gang-involved, and/or exhibit other risk factors. The project will match 210 youth with screened, trained adult mentors who provide a one-to-one mentoring relationship in a school setting, through structured group activities, and at community locations in the summer months. The first goal of the project is to prevent youth aged 8 ' 14 from becoming involved in youth street gangs, crime, and violence by engaging these at-risk youth in an enhanced school-based mentoring program which will decrease targeted risk factors and increase protective factors that make mentored youth more resilient to gang recruitment and delinquency. The second goal is to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the Fighting Back School-Based Mentoring Program to provide mentoring services to youth through structured mentoring activities (primary focus), enhance mentor training in youth development, and support services for the parents of mentees. Short term outcome objectives include improvements in core academic subjects and work skill scores while increasing self confidence and ability to avoid delinquency, as measured by student report cards and mentor/mentee survey instruments. A long term outcome includes a decrease in mentored youth who become gang involved or commit repeat crimes or probation violations. CA/NCF