We All Winn Second Chance Youth 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 to transition successfully from incarceration to the community. OJJDP will provide grants to support mentoring and other transitional services essential to reintegrating juvenile offenders into their communities. Grants will be used to mentor juvenile offenders during secure 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. This program is authorized by the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, Pub. L. 112-110.

The Kennedy Center of Louisiana proposes the expansion of its successful "We All Winn" Second Chance Youth Mentoring rogram to serve an additional one hundred-twenty (120) juvenile offenders 13-17 years old returning to Caddo Parish after incarceration. The program's primary goal is to increase the capacity of the existing reentry consortium of agencies for the purpose of reducing recidivism rates among juvenile offenders in Caddo Parish. The program aims to address the known risk factors contributing to recidivism by strengthening adult-youth bonding through mentoring, strengthening the role of parents and community, and providing assistance in educational, career and social achievement. The program's components are delivered to juveniles pre and post release, and include mentoring relationships with adult role models, academic assistance, career exploration, parental engagement, and psychological counseling. The targeted outcomes will be: increased re-entry partnership capacity, decreased recidivism, increased academic achievement/ graduation rates/GED completion; reduced truancy, disciplinary referrals, and suspensions; strengthened bonds to family and community; and decreased high risk behaviors (including gang association and drug/alcohol use). Progress will be measured through multiple instruments including academic records, program attendance records, and pre/post surveys of youth, parents, and mentors.
CA/NCF