Recover Our Youth

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act'). Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention made awards to support local organizations that develop, implement, or expand local mentoring programs leading to measurable, positive outcomes for at-risk youth. This program furthers the Department's mission by enhancing the capacity of local mentoring programs to develop and implement mentoring strategies to reduce juvenile delinquency and prevent violence.

Smart Choices for Youth, Inc. (SCFY, Inc.) of Goldsboro, North Carolina proposes to expand mentoring services to address the needs of at-risk and high-risk youth in Goldsboro and Wilson, North Carolina. Wayne and Wilson County are in Eastern North Carolina where Goldsboro and Wilson are the county seats. The purpose of the 'Recover Our Youth' program is to provide researched evidence-based one-on-one and group mentoring programming to at least 200 new youth in the targeted communities. The youth will be between the ages of 6 to 17. Mentoring programs used by Recover Our Youth will include education, job readiness, employment skills development, and training in exposure to entrepreneurial activities. These strategies will reduce juvenile delinquency, violence, gang participation, school failure and dropout among at-risk youth. The juvenile justice system local law enforcement and the Wayne and Wilson Counties public school system will be the primary referral sources. Youth in the Recover Our Youth initiative will benefit from improved organizational capacity and mentoring services provided by collaborative partners and strategies implemented by SCFY, Inc. SCFY, Inc. will expand upon existing collaborative partnership already established through the 20-year relationship developed with faith based and community based organizations, schools, etc. in Wayne and Wilson Counties.

This award will retain approximately 6 jobs; thus the project achieves the Recovery Act objective of promoting economic recovery by preserving or creating jobs. CA/NCF