Solano Mentor Collaborative

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.

The Solano Mentor Collaborative is a coalition of faith- and community-based mentor programs and agencies working to support the healthy development of at-risk youth. The Solano Mentor Collaborative will be staffed by Fighting Back Partnership, a 501c3 nonprofit, with a local and nationally recognized talent for building multi-stakeholder support for increasing resiliency among youth and their families. The program will take place in Vallejo, CA, a city in economic decline, where citizens are shouldering the effects of a weakened municipal and school infrastructure, and unemployment and housing foreclosure are at an all-time high. The Solano Mentor Collaborative will infuse Vallejo's mentoring agencies with wraparound services to maintain support to youth. The collaborative will coordinate mentoring efforts ' recruit, screen, train, and certify mentors, linking them to mentor agencies. Through one-on-one transformative and group mentoring, youth will be paired with caring adults, engaging in academic or recreation activities at least one hour per week, for one to two years. The project will serve 170 youth in Year 1, and will increase by 10% in Years 2 and 3. Intermediate and long-term objectives will aim to reduce problem behaviors, such as delinquency, school drop out, gang involvement, and alcohol and drug involvement.

This award will sustain approximately 1 job and will create 7 new jobs; thus the project achieves the Recovery Act objective of promoting economic recovery by preserving or creating jobs. CA/NCF