APEL is proposing the 'YouthLink Mentoring Plus Program' (YLMP) as a crime prevention and juvenile recidivism initiative.

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.

APEL Health Services Center, Inc., in Jacksonville, Florida, is proposing the 'YouthLink Mentoring Plus Program' as a crime prevention and juvenile recidivism initiative. The program targets the highest-ranking zip code, 32209, for referrals into the juvenile justice system, mainly African American males. There is a need to facilitate re-entry of teens exiting from juvenile corrections facilities in order to reduce their involvement in future crimes and reduce incidences of their return to the system. APEL will recruit youth from Department of Juvenile Justice facilities, housing male juveniles in Duval County and the local detention facilities, to provide mentoring services pre-release, during transition and post-release to 100 teen males, ages 14-18 years; 50 will receive intervention; 50 are control group.. The program will offer peer mentor/tutoring, a family support evidence-based intervention, entrepreneurship training and linkage to services for youth/families, based on needs. This program addresses the problem of Juvenile Delinquency among Ex-Offenders. Primary goals are: Reduce criminal involvement of juvenile ex-offenders and Address juvenile crime by supporting effective programs and practices. Data will be collected to measure the following short-term and intermediate outcomes for participants: 60% not involved in crime by theend of program; and 80% of youth have improved attitude toward adults by end of program.
CA/NCF