New Opportunities for Indianapolis Youth Through Mentoring

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.

The YMCA proposes to launch 'New Opportunities for Indianapolis Youth Through Mentoring,' a mentoring project that will be supported by a collaboration with several Indianapolis area youth and family serving agencies to help youth who have been incarcerated. The goal of the project is to reduce juvenile recidivism rates and crime rates in Indianapolis through group mentoring with trained, caring adults. Target behaviors include decreases in homicide, assault, and violent behavior resulting in jail time by significantly strengthening mentoring programs. The project will be guided by the following four over-arching program components that build youth assets and combine community resources to provide youth with the opportunities to strengthen their lives and resist high-risk behaviors: mentoring, career exploration, academic excellence, and social skills development. During the course of the project, 122 youth and over 75 mentors will be recruited through this project. Data will be collected to measure academic performance, avoidance of negative outcomes (such as engaging in violent behavior, early parenthood, or substance abuse), and behavior changes that lead to positive growth and personal development.

CA/NCF