Multi-State SBYD

The Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, Category 2 (Multi-State Mentoring Program) provides funding to support mentoring organizations in their efforts to strengthen and/or expand their existing mentoring activities within local chapters or sub-awardees (in at least 5 states but fewer than 45 states) to reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors. FY 2016 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. Programs are encouraged to target their mentoring services to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth; children of parents on active military duty; children of incarcerated parents; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth; youth with disabilities; and youth in rural communities.

Up2Us Sports will launch the Multi-State SBYD (Sports-Based Youth Development) Initiative which will provide each of its program sites with a Master Coach-Mentor for two consecutive years, who will be responsible for modeling best practices in SBYD mentoring and for implementing tools and methodology so that each organization can implement the six core practices of effective mentoring. Multi-State SBYD is innovative because it specifically uses SBYD as a methodology for reducing juvenile crime and other delinquent behaviors. SBYD is a mentoring practice that combines the effective strategies of traditional mentoring into a sports setting, whereby coaches are trained as mentors who can deliver group and one-on-one mentoring to at-risk/high-risk youth. Master Coach-Mentors will receive 50 hours of yearlong training on how to teach life skills and inspire pro-social behavior through sports. Each one-year term is comprised of 900 service hours, the vast majority of hours being direct SBYD mentoring activities. Master Coach-Mentors will also commit to training and resource development to create standards around SBYD mentor/mentee recruitment, screening, matching, training, monitoring, evaluating, and closure. The program will target urban youth who face multiple risk factors for delinquency, including exposure to high rates of parental incarceration, community violence, drug usage/selling, gang participation and failing schools. Multi-State SBYD will evaluate its success by collecting data on the number of youth served, the dosage and duration of their participation, and improvements in their "High Impact Attributes (HIAs)." HIAs are a set of mental attributes that lead youth to make better decisions and are associated with reductions in violence and negative social behaviors. CA/NCF