Prevention Initiative for At-Risk Youth

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.

With a focus on at-risk youth, this two-year project increases the capacity of schools to implement evidence-based prevention practices that ensure young people have access to strong connections with adult mentors and opportunity to learn in schools with positive climates. The school-based strategies to be implemented are youth mentoring and comprehensive bullying prevention tactics. All 101 existing school-based mentoring programs will receive access to training and resources and a community mentoring collaboration will be developed in Hartford, an urban community where youth face multiple challenges. School-based mentoring programs will receive training and assistance, enabling them to serve at least 25 additional children representing higher-need populations. Fifteen school staff will receive specialized technical assistance on best practices for bullying prevention and positive school climate. Ten schools will conduct surveys to determine the extent of school disengagement, bullying, substance abuse and other poor school climate symptoms. Progress toward short-term and intermediate outcomes including (1) increase in knowledge among school staff about bullying prevention and mentoring strategies;(2) increase in number of evidence-based strategies implemented by schools; and (3) increase in school administrators' awareness of bullying prevention efforts will be measured by staff records, pre- and post-training evaluations and pre- and postsurveys. NCA/NCF