G&G Mentoring Program

The Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) authorizes grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims' support, and other services to help adult and juvenile ex-offenders make a successful transition from incarceration to the community. In support of this goal, OJJDP will provide grants to support mentoring and other transitional services essential to reintegrating juvenile offenders into their communities. The grants will be used to mentor juvenile offenders during confinement, through transition back to the community, and post-release; to provide transitional services to assist them in their reintegration into the community; and to support training in offender and victims issues. Targeted youth must be younger than 18 years old. The initiative's legislative authority is found in the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2010 (Pub. L. 111-117).

Girls & Gangs' Mentoring Program will serve 180 adjudicated girls (ages 14-18), over 36 months, who are re-entering the communities of East and South Los Angeles after incarceration in the Los Angeles County Probation Department's Camps Scott and Scudder. The program's purpose is to provide structured, trusting relationships with adult community leaders who will offer the girls guidance, support, and encouragement aimed at developing pro-social behaviors and competencies. These mentoring relationships will help the girls develop skills and attitudes necessary to reduce their risk of recidivism and decrease delinquent behavior. The program will build upon existing reentry services to increase the girls' support systems in the community. The program offers one-on-one and group mentoring. Participants are required to make a one-year program commitment. Mentoring begins three months pre-release from incarceration and continues for at least nine months post-release. Concurrently, the girls receive one year of individual case management and nine months of pre- and post-release life-skills workshops focused on self esteem, empowerment, self-advocacy, anger management, job readiness, financial literacy, and creative expression. Program goals will be measured through group and individual pre- and post-interviews, attendance records, fulfillment of the mentoring contract, and skills-based pre- and post- tests. CA/NCF