Border Mentoring Coordinator Project

OJJDP supports wide-ranging mentoring initiatives to reduce juvenile delinquency, gang involvement, academic failure, victimization, and school dropout rates. While mentoring is traditionally a volunteer-based service, a need exists for staff and resources to support the efforts of each mentoring program. Developing and maintaining mentoring partnerships and collaboratives can build capacity and increase the power of mentoring to benefit more young people. Local mentoring partnerships and collaboratives can bring together public and private sector leadership, eliminate duplication of efforts, fill service gaps, and offer centralized services. The successful award recipient(s) will fund a coordinator position to support a local continuum of mentoring services for targeted youth. This program is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2012, Pub. L. No. 112-55, 125 Stat. 552, 617.

The target population for this Local Mentoring Coordinator initiative is at-risk, primarily Hispanic youth in the neighboring border communities of El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Partnering mentoring agencies will expand and enhance critical areas of program delivery and community collaboration through the efforts of the Mentoring Coordinator, paying particular attention to the cultural implications of serving in primarily Latino communities. The Border Mentoring Advocates Committee will be established to identify current/prospective funders and supporters of mentoring programs and secure new/continued/expanded engagement as partners to local Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies. The Mentoring Coordinator will facilitate their work in devising, implementing, and measuring the success of a Joint Sustainability Plan. Mentoring partners will also benefit from detailed program analysis in the areas of recruitment, orientation, training, data collection, and other quality areas of program operations. After completion of the analysis, the Mentoring Coordinator will present findings and facilitate the development, implementation, and tracking/measuring of a Program Enhancement Plan as enhanced mentoring services are provided to additional youth in the region. Through these efforts, the program goals are to: a) improve outcomes for at-risk youth by establishing and strengthening collaborative community approaches, and b) provide direct one-to-one mentoring to underserved youth populations.

CA/NCF