Multi-State Coach Mentoring Initiative

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.

Up2Us, Inc. (Up2Us) will continue the National Coach Mentoring Initiative (CMI), which was launched with OJJDP funding in 2012. The goal of CMI is to prevent youth from engaging in risky behavior that could cause them to become victims and/or perpetrators of violence. Up2Us accomplishes this by training youth sports coaches as mentors, providing them with positive youth development and anti-violence strategies, and then placing them in underserved communities to provide group mentoring services to high-risk and at-risk youth. In implementing this project, Up2Us will partner with sports-based youth development (SBYD) programs across the country, selected from a pool of over 800 Up2Us member organizations, to establish SBYD Mentoring Programs in 12 cities across 10 states with high rates of youth delinquency. Up2Us will recruit, train and place coach-mentors in host sites to provide structured group mentoring services to at-risk and high risk youth in underserved communities. Coach-mentors will support at-risk youth in developing the social and emotional skills to avoid violence and lead safe and healthy lives. Through this initiative, Up2Us expects to achieve national performance measures related to youth violence reduction and mentoring programs, including the following: mentors and mentees will develop positive relationships; mentees will develop life skills that will support healthy decision making; mentees will achieve violence and delinquency rates that are lower than local averages; and mentees will reduce risky behavior that leads to violence and delinquency. CA/NCF