Using a youth-centered developmental approach to enhance group and one-on-one mentoring services to impact vulnerable youth.

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 U.S. Dream Academy (USDA) will enhance group and one-to-one mentoring services for at-risk and underserved youth (grades 3-9) and children at high risk of incarceration. The project will expand the mentoring experiences available for children with an incarcerated parent and those impacted by crime and/or failing in one or more subjects in school who live in high risk environments through enhancements to its mentoring services. The grantee will design, deliver, and evaluate six evidence based mentoring enhancements across all program sites to mentoring practices and outcomes for the target youth population. The goal of this initiative is to improve academic performance, reduce school drop-out rates and reduce juvenile delinquency and gang participation through mentoring. This goal will be achieved with the following objectives: 1) Expand access to mentoring services for children with incarcerated parents and children in high risk environments; 2) enhance mentoring services by incorporating research-informed enhancements in six program practice areas at all project sites; and 3) strengthen performance measurement and ongoing evaluation of the program's one-to-one and group mentoring activities. The project will implement the Messages Project, which provides innovative practices to help children maintain/rebuild relationships with their incarcerated parents, and the TAME project, which engages parents and builds their parenting skills to create a culture of excellence. The grantee will employ an evidence-based framework on positive youth developed by the Search Institute to strengthen its youth-centered approach to mentoring. CA/NCF