2018 Indiana Mentoring Opportunities for Youth

The Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, Category 5 (Statewide and Regional Mentoring Initiative for Youth Impacted by Opioids) supports a broad-based approach to building mentoring program capacity in targeted regions throughout the country to help youth impacted by opioids. This program is authorized and funded pursuant to Pub. L. No. 115-141, 132 Stat. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s (FSSA) Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA) intends to pass funds through to the Indiana Youth Institute (IYI), a statewide entity that provides professional education, organizational capacity, data, and impact solutions for youth-serving organizations. IYI will work closely with three regional affiliates of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) and two MENTOR Indiana Affiliates (100 Black Men of Indianapolis and Project Leadership). The affiliates serve 21 Indiana counties, half of which are rural. DMHA will also work collaboratively with the following state agencies: Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, and Department of Workforce Development. Efforts will be made to develop and coordinate efforts with similar missions and targeted populations. The four overarching goals for the project include an increase in the following in Indiana: (1) youth ages 17 and younger who are mentored by an adult who is informed of the risks and resources for opioid addiction and substance abuse disorder (SUD) within the family and receive effective interventions to prevent SUD; (2) mentors who are trained regarding opioid use and SUDs, trained and knowledgeable in their ability to implement practices from understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), and trained and knowledgeable in the implementation of trauma-informed practices and their impact on social and emotional health; (3) youth-serving professionals who are trained regarding opioid use and SUDs, trained and knowledgeable in implementing the ACE screening tool, and trained and knowledgeable in the implementation of trauma-informed practices and their impact on social and emotional health; and (4) family members who are educated regarding opioid use and SUDs, trained and knowledgeable in implementing the ACE screening tool, and trained and knowledgeable in the implementation of trauma-informed practices and their impact on social and emotional health. IYI will design an evaluation for measuring the increase in knowledge among mentors, staff, and parents after participating in trainings on SUDs, the ACE screening tool, trauma-informed care, and opioid addiction. IYI also will design additional evaluation tools that MENTOR Indiana affiliates can incorporate into their current youth progress evaluations to specifically determine youth improvement in the areas of developing resilience and healthy alternatives to negative influences that may lead to substance use.