Amachi Multi-State Project

The Multi-State Mentoring Program provides funding to support established mentoring organizations in their efforts to strengthen and/or expand their existing mentoring activities within local chapters or sub-awardees in five or more states to reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors. FY 2014 funding will address the factors that can lead to or serve as a catalyst for delinquency or other problem behaviors in underserved youth, including youth in high-risk environments, children of incarcerated parents and tribal youth. The program is comprised of three categories: Category 1 for organizations implementing one-on-one mentoring programs, Category 2 for Group mentoring programs and Category 3 for a combination of both one-on-one and group mentoring.

The Amachi Multi-State Mentoring Project will improve academic and behavioral outcomes, and reduce negative outcomes for 1,000 youth who are at-risk of academic failure, truancy, adjudication and gang involvement. The project will be implemented across Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas and New York. Of the 1,000 new youth matched, 800 will be children impacted by incarceration, 400 will be boys of color, and 300 youth will be matched with mentors from local congregations. In addition to continuing to implement quality practices in these areas, the grantee will enhance and expand mentoring services to underserved populations, specifically targeting children impacted by incarceration and boys of color.
The Amachi Multi-State Mentoring Project will implement and evaluate four enhancement strategies that have been associated with program effectiveness but are less commonly implemented. These strategies include assessing and serving mentee risk, using a youth-centered developmental approach, incorporating advocacy/teaching roles for mentors, and encouraging the mentor to think of him/herself as a role model. Amachi will also implement a risk assessment tool with newly matched youth which will help guide the mentoring with setting goals for the youth-centered development approach, as well as what advocacy should be incorporated, what should be role modeled, and encouraging an emotional connection. Subgrantees will receive training and technical assistance on each of the enhancement strategies. One thousand children in existing mentoring relationships will benefit from the proposed enhancements across five Amachi mentoring programs, thus impacting a total of 2,000 youth ages 9-17. The grantee will also conduct a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of the enhancements, specifically striving to determine the success of the training and supports and how they vary based on mentee age, gender, facets of risk and ethnicity. The project will address the current knowledge gap in the mentoring community by evaluating the effectiveness of less commonly implemented mentoring practices, particularly as they relate to successfully mentoring male youth of color.

CA/NCF