Knoxville Area Mentoring Initiative

The Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, Category 4 (Project Sites and Mentoring Strategies for Youth Impacted by Opioids and Drug Addiction) 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 and drug addiction. This program is authorized and funded pursuant to Pub. L. No. 116-93, 133 Stat. 2317, 2410.

The Knoxville Leadership Foundation’s (KLF) Knoxville Area Mentoring Initiative (KAMI) program is a collaboration of five youth mentoring organizations — KLF (Amachi Knoxville mentoring program; lead applicant), Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee, Joy of Music School, YMCA of East Tennessee, and Girls on the Run of Greater Knoxville. KAMI is supported by substance abuse partners Cherokee Health Systems and The Metro Drug Coalition. KAMI partners will harness their collective experience to support quality-mentoring opportunities and provide opioid prevention educational strategies to at-risk youth up to age 17 who are affected by opioids. Youth will be selected based on current or previous use of opioids, high opioid use in the community, having a family member who is or has been engaged with opioids, and involvement in the foster care system due to a parent’s drug use. KAMI aims to prevent future opioid use by providing caring adult mentors and opioid prevention education, and connecting youth and their families to support services. A total of 385 youth will be recruited and matched with 125 screened and trained mentors. KAMI partners will monitor youth behavioral changes in the following areas: substance use, antisocial behavior, and family relationship in accordance with OJJDP’s performance measures. Data collection will not constitute research for generalized knowledge. CA/NCF