The Share Mentoring Project

The SS/HS Initiative is a joint effort by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice to support schools and communities in creating safer and healthier learning environments. This solicitation invites current Safe Schools/Healthy Student grantees to develop proposals that will increase the capacity of their SS/HS collaborations to develop and implement community-based mentoring programs or to expand and enhance existing mentoring programs and strategies. This program advances the provision of integrated resources for prevention and early intervention services for children and youth by supporting effective evidence-based mentoring services to young people who are underserved. The intent of this program is to demonstrate new mentoring efforts or to expand existing mentoring efforts that work in concert with a grantee's SS/HS comprehensive plan.

The Broome-Tioga BOCES Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative, SHARE: Safe Healthy Attitudes Require Education, serves 10 school districts in Broome County, NY. The addition of a Team Youth Mentoring Program will focus on reducing: truancy, bullying, first-time school-based offenses, first-time offenses involving the justice system, recidivism, and involvement in violent incidents. Team mentoring involves several adults working with small groups of youth in which the adult-to-youth ratio is not greater than 1:4. The group nature of interactions directly supports positive role modeling and the development of positive relational and peer social interaction skills. The Team Youth Mentoring Program will be integrated into the implementation of the Olweus Anti-bullying Program in the 10 middle schools served by SHARE. Youth mentors will serve on the school-based anti-bullying committees, engage with parents and community leaders, and reinforce home-school-community connections. Team mentoring will take place in the community as part of the community schools model, which engages community stakeholders and leaders and supports the schools role as centers of community. Activities will be driven by youth interests and strengths, and include activities that provide opportunities for team and trust building. Additionally, teams will design and implement a community service or charitable event annually. CA/NCF