Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - the Native American Mentoring Initiative Program

This solicitation invites applicants to propose initiatives that will support the development, maturation, and expansion of community programs that provide mentoring services to tribal youth populations that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, emotional or behavioral challenges of the targeted population, or other situations identified by the federally recognized tribes. This program is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2009, Pub. L. 111-8.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) proposes to maintain the Native American Mentoring Initiative program and improve the impact on the youth served. BBBSA proposes to utilize their knowledge of the tribal governments and justice systems to get more tribal resolutions and continue the implementation of one-on-one mentoring programs in school and community settings to prevent more children from falling into the pattern of detrimental behavior and failure. Through this grant, BBBS will work with close to 1,200 children ages six to seventeen in the White Mountain Apache nations and 25 other federally recognized tribal nations. In 2009, BBBS plans to provide direct investments to accelerate the work of the 30 Native American Mentoring Initiative agencies to improve access into the tribal communities through tribal resolutions. In 2010, BBBS will provide direct investments to those same agencies to better reach more American Indian and Native Alaskan youth. The project objectives are: (1) to expand the Big Brothers Big Sisters Native American Mentoring Initiative by increasing the number of American Indian and Alaskan Native youth served by an average of at least 3% annually during the grant period; (2) to enhance organizational capacity and the administration of mentoring programs for American Indian and Alaskan Native youth through expanded recruitment, training, and retention of qualified mentors; (3) to expand and enhance our capacity to better serve more Native American and Alaskan Native Youth by helping increasing agencies' efforts to gain access to more communities by acquiring at least 15 Tribal Resolutions.
CA/NCF