AIM for Your Dreams: Access, Inspiration and Mentoring for Youth Through Cloud Mentoring

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 (specifically opioid abuse), truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors. FY 2020 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 children of parents on active military duty; children of incarcerated parents; youth with opioid/substance abuse problems; youth that experience bullying (including cyberbullying); and youth in rural communities. This program is authorized and funded pursuant to Pub. L. No. 116-93, 133 Stat. 2317, 2410. U.S. Dream Academy’s AIM for Your Dreams: Access, Inspiration and Mentoring for Youth initiative is an innovative virtual mentoring strategy to build resilience, growth mindset, and other protective factors to increase young people’s ability to successfully complete high school, improve well-being, and reduce the chances of juvenile justice system involvement. AIM is designed to support youth living in neighborhoods with documented patterns of high poverty, high arrest rates, and low academic achievement among residents. The current pandemic and global crisis underscore the need for virtual solutions that support young people who have been traditionally less able to access the critical supports needed for positive youth development. These needs are even more profound as our country navigates a “new normal” that limits in-person social interactions. The goals of AIM are to reduce incidences of juvenile crime, substance abuse, and bullying while increasing academic success, character development, career development opportunities, and parent/caregiver engagement. The program will achieve these goals through a custom-designed virtual mentoring platform using secure video conferencing paired with U.S. Dream Academy’s evidence-based mentoring program. U.S. Dream Academy will combine the best of technology with the best in mentoring to create a scalable solution to close the mentoring gap for youth in high-risk communities. The project will reach 2,085 vulnerable youth in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods over 3 years. U.S. Dream Academy will lead this national effort with local chapters in seven states: Baltimore, MD; Houston, TX; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA (with proposed expansion to Global Leadership Academy Southwest); Salt Lake City, UT; San Bernardino, CA; and Washington, DC. CA/NCF