Resilient Empowered and Directed (RED) Program

The Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, Category 4 (Project Sites and Mentoring Strategies for Youth Impacted by Opioids) supports youth mentoring organizations that have a demonstrated partnership with a public or private substance abuse treatment agency. The focus of this category is to provide mentoring services as a part of a prevention, treatment and supportive approach for those youth impacted by opioids. This program is authorized and funded pursuant to Pub. L. No. 115-141, 132 Stat. 348, 423.

The Inland Action Mentoring Collaborative (IAMC) will implement a Collaborative Mentoring Program that targets youth ages 14–17 in the Inland Empire, specifically school districts in Riverside and San Bernardino (CA) Counties. Targeted youth will be enrolled in the Rialto, San Bernardino, Victorville, or Moreno Valley school districts. Common characteristics defining targeted youth include those who (1) possess certain predictive/correlative characteristics, (2) are involved in the juvenile justice system, and/or (3) reside in an environment with high rates of parental incarceration, community violence, drug markets, gang concentration, and failing schools.

Targeted youth will receive program services from the Resilient, Empowered, and Directed (RED) program. IAMC will carry out the RED Mentoring Project for students entering the program as high school freshmen. Program services will be provided for 2 years to targeted youth as they progress through high school. The RED project adopted the Quantum Opportunities Best Practice Model to address the service needs of the targeted population. IAMC’s selected program design serves to increase positive behaviors; prevent drug/opioid abuse; foster increased academic performance, career mentoring, and continuation into postsecondary education after graduation; and provide support for individuals receiving substance abuse treatment. Further, IAMC’s designed plan also seeks to reduce negative behaviors among youth, including truancy, dropout, delinquency, and crime. The target population is 150 students—50 students each from the Victorville school district and Moreno Valley school district, and 25 students each from the San Bernardino County school district (continuation schools) and Rialto unified school district.

CA/NCF