Kidsbridge Life Skills

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

The Kidsbridge Program will benefit Trenton's at risk youth and their families. Specifically, it will benefit youth 12-15 years old in a school setting with an emphasis on youth violence prevention/ intervention strategies, gang resistance, and activities after school. The program will demonstrate measurable improvements in self esteem with reductions in detention, truancy, and suspension. The program will provide weekly prevention activities with college mentors from the college of NJ emphasizing self-restraint, job seeking skills, and positive interpersonal skills. The intent of the Kidsbridge weekly program is to provide students with safe and relevant opportunities for examining representations of the violence, vandalism, and victimization that they feel and fear in their personal lives. The program will provide two hours per group, per week for 32 weeks, between October 2010 through June 2011, in supportive collaboration with teachers of the identified students and school administrators from two or four Trenton Middle Schools. NCA/NCF