School Based Mentoring: Lobo Partnership

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 Lobo Partnership, named after Rocky Mountain High School's tenacious mascot, will build a partnership between Poudre School District K-12 schools in the Rocky Mountain High School feeder system, Partners Mentoring Youth, and Colorado State University's School of Social Work to provide school based mentoring. The 110 youth served by the completion of the project are identified as being in need of additional positive adult support. This project will also increase the number of youth served year-round through Partners Mentoring Youth, increase the number of School of Social Work graduate interns who are able to work in the public school system, expand the system for recruiting and training community volunteers to serve as mentors, and establish peer mentoring within the school system itself. The eventual goal of the project is to provide youth with a positive mentoring relationship that will help them build personal assets and protective factors, leading to good choices and decreased negative behaviors. The goals of the program are: To provide youth with a positive mentoring relationship that will help them build personal assets and protective factors; to develop a school based mentoring project that uses the expertise of Colorado State University School of Social Work interns to provide quality relationships for students K-12; to develop a school based mentoring project that will involve community members in relationships with students that are less time-intensive than traditional community based mentoring partnerships and to develop a solid community partnership between Poudre School District, Partners Mentoring Youth, and Colorado State University that will act as a model for future cost-effective collaborative work in future years. Specific performance measures for the program are: decreased acceptance of interpersonal violence, decreased delinquent behavior, decreased acceptance of ATOD use, and increased commitment to academic improvement.

This award will retain one part-time and three full-time jobs; thus the project achieves the Recovery Act objective of promoting economic recovery by preserving or creating jobs. CA/NCF