Boys & Girls Clubs Recovery Act National Youth Mentoring Programs

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 programs that have a national scope and national impact on combating juvenile delinquency, reducing the victimization of children, and improving the juvenile justice system through mentoring activities. This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) currently serve approximately 4.8 Million youth. The goal of the proposed project is to preserve and create jobs to expand and enhance mentoring programs and experiences at local Boys & Girls Clubs and maintain other essential services without interruption. Through the proposed initiative, the organization seeks to serve more than 500,000 youth. Boys & Girls Clubs across America will promote economic recovery through the creation and retention of more than 4,500 Club level employment opportunities.

Funding priority will be given to those diverse communities that have been heavily impacted by the downturn of our nation's economy, with an emphasis given to the mentoring and other service needs of Hispanic, African-American and Native American Youth. All Clubs that receive funding will be required to implement at least one evidence based program, which will result in the implementation of more than 1,190 evidence-based programs with mentoring elements. BGCA currently has three programs: SMART Moves; Project Learn; and Targeted Outreach that are approved by OJP as evidence-based programs. They have recently submitted three additional programs for approval as evidence-based programs: Money Matters; CareerLaunch; and Triple Play, all which address very specifically the mentoring needs of youth relative to education, job readiness, employment and skill development, and training in and exposure to entrepreneurial activities.

This project achieves the Recovery Act objective of promoting economic recovery by preserving or creating jobs. For every $13,333 approximately 4500 jobs will be created or retained over a one year period.

CA/NCF