Sullivan County Youth Intervention Program

The Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) authorizes grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims support, and other services to help adult and juvenile ex-offenders make a successful transition from incarceration to the community. In support of the goals of the Second Chance Act, OJJDP will provide grants to support mentoring and other transitional services essential to reintegrating juvenile offenders into the community. The grants will be used for mentoring juvenile offenders during confinement, through transition back to the community, and post-release; transitional services to assist the reintegration of youth offenders into the community; and training in offender and victims issues. The legislative authority for this initiative can be found in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002 and the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. 111-8.

Sullivan County Youth Intervention Project is a collaboration of Big Brother Big Sisters, Sullivan County and its Juvenile Justice System, Communities United for Substance Abuse Prevention, and Child and Family Services to expand upon the success of the individualized youth mentoring service of the Big Brother Big Sisters of Western New Hampshire and the coordinated efforts of the juvenile justice system, in an effort to enrich the types of mentoring services that effectively reach juvenile offenders. Mentors will be recruited from area colleges, faith-based and civic organizations, and general public. Matches will be made while the youth are in jail, residential placement, or at home, and will be designed to sustain for two years. The long term goal is to reduce the number of youth placed in out-of- home placement - residential setting. This will be accomplished through the development of a case management program to serve high risk and special needs youthful offenders, utilization of mentors to provide additional support, improvement of the service delivery system, and establishment of frequent, ongoing communication between key stakeholders. Progress will be measured through outcome criteria, as delineated in the following proposal, and data collection in support of OJJDP mandatory performance measures. CA/NCF