Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2009, $452,826)
OJJDP seeks applicants to establish mentoring programs that offer a mixture of core services and engage youth with activities that enable them to practice healthy behaviors within a positive pro-social peer group. The target population should be youth at risk of gang activity, delinquency, and youth violence. This program should develop and strengthen protective factors against gang involvement and other problem behaviors. It can be based in a school or community setting. Successful applicants will include organizations, local school districts, and communities dealing with demonstrated gang problems who are a part of a communitywide strategy to combat gang activity. This initiative is authorized under the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. 111-8.
The Gang Prevention through Targeted Outreach Mentoring (GPTTOM) Program is a comprehensive approach using effective strategies that directs young people at risk for gang involvement and juvenile delinquency into a mentoring program with positive alternatives offered by the Club. The program intends to prevent gang activity, while also mentoring youth to enable them to build healthy behaviors with positive peer groups. This effort will include four components: (1) Community mobilization/ recruiting and training mentors (2) Recruiting targeted youth as the mentees (3) Linking targeted youth to a mentor and involving youth in Club programming (including life skill and prevention curriculums) (4) Club professionals and volunteers mentoring targeted youth at the Club sites. The program will serve 200 youth, ages 9 to 17, at the following five Club sites in Knoxville and Maryville, Tennessee: Moses, Montgomery Village, Eagleton, Halls/Powell, and Caswell Club sites. Program participants will increase social competency skills and will improve positive school-related behaviors (grades or attendance), while also being less likely to become involved in juvenile delinquency or gang activity. CA/NCF