Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: Mentoring Youth Impacted by Opioids (MYIO)

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. 348, 423.

Through the Mentoring Youth Impacted by Opioids (MYIO) initiative, BBBSA will improve youth, mentor, and parent/caregiver knowledge of the risks of opioid abuse; provide opioid and substance abuse education to youth, mentors, staff, parents, and caregivers; and provide support and guidance to youth who have a parent or family member using opioids. BBBSA affiliates will provide mentoring services to 650 youth impacted by opioid use, including youth who (1) live in communities with high rates of opioid use and overdoses; (2) have a parent or other family member who is currently using or who has used opioids; (3) are in foster care due to opioid use by a primary caregiver; or (4) have a high risk for using opioids due to individual, family, and community risk factors.

Local affiliates will identify youth in their programs who are impacted by opioid use and would benefit from this targeted initiative. This will be done using BBBSA’s Risk and Protective Factor Inventory assessment, as well as information provided by parents, family members, teachers, or other community partners that have identified a child as being impacted by opioids. Youth referrals will also be accepted from public and private treatment facilities that identify youth who have a parent, sibling, or other family member who is using or has used opioids. Some affiliates will accept referrals from juvenile court administrations, teachers, and school counselors. Finally, youth involved in the foster care system because of parental opioid use may be referred to MYIO.

Through the MYIO initiative, youth will receive drug prevention education developed by BBBSA in partnership with Caron Treatment Centers. BBBSA and Caron will develop online training to educate youth on the science of addiction, the impact of opiate addiction on families, resources for youth about opiate addiction, and how youth can be good consumers and advocates for their health. Affiliates will provide specialized trainings to staff and mentors working with youth. Trainings will include identifying the signs of opioid use/abuse, providing youth with knowledge and skills for avoiding opioid use, and reducing youth risk factors while improving protective factors. BBBSA will collect data regularly from subrecipients and report on all required OJJDP performance measures. Data from project evaluations are intended only to generate internal improvements to the program and to meet OJP’s performance measure data reporting requirements. BBBSA will not use any portion of the funding for research.

CA/NCF