YMCA Second Chance Through 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).

The Second Chance Through Mentoring (SCM) program is a collaboration between the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Metropolitan Minneapolis, Hennepin County Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. The goal of the SCM program is to reduce recidivism among incarcerated juvenile ex-offenders in Hennepin County, MN. The program will (1) assist youth transition successfully back to their home, (2) prevent recidivism and future incarceration, and (3) help youth to develop the life skills needed for success in adulthood. The following objectives have been established: (1) improve youth outcomes by establishing a collaborative community mentoring program (measure: partner &youth participation), (2) establish an evidence-based mentoring program for at-risk/high-risk, underserved youth (measure: use of evidence-based practices) and (3) enhance their mentoring program to achieve the highest effectiveness and efficiencies through training and other strategies (measure: mentor participation). The YMCA will hire 1.5 Community mentoring Specialists to provide youth transition services 8 weeks prior to release. Adult mentors will be matched to mentees and work with Community Mentoring Specialists to support the youths' case plans through 1:1 and group mentoring activities. Services will be augmented by social, recreational and practical support activities, including one-stop shop independent living skills, as well as employment and education curricula delivered by mentors and community partners.
CA/NCF