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November/December 2003  
 Volume II Number 6  
In this Issue
right side navagation bar Mentoring New Publications Blueprints Ring of Gold Award Funding Update TCAP Pilot Sites Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Mentoring Makes a Difference

One mentor, one person can change a life forever.

—President George W. Bush

Mentoring is an effective way to prevent at-risk youth from becoming involved in delinquency and also to help already delinquent youth change their lives for the better. Mentoring relationships have been shown to improve youth’s self-esteem, behavior, and academic performance. For these reasons, OJJDP has long been a leading supporter of mentoring programs, partnering with national organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, MENTOR National Mentoring Partnership, and the National Network of Youth Ministries and directly sponsoring local efforts via the Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP). In October 2003, OJJDP expanded its activities with the “Coach a Kid in the Game of Life” public service campaign and Web page.

JUMP Initiative

Since 1994, OJJDP’s JUMP initiative has sponsored programs that provide one-to-one mentoring. The initiative focuses on intervening with youth at risk of entering or reentering the juvenile justice system. Its ultimate goal is to develop a population of healthy youth through structured relationships with caring adults. JUMP matches volunteer adult mentors and at-risk youth with the specific intent of improving academic performance and reducing school dropout rates, youth gang involvement, and delinquency. OJJDP provides JUMP sites with training and technical assistance through the National Mentoring Center (www.nwrel.org/mentoring).

In FY 2003, OJJDP awarded 30 JUMP grants to mentoring programs across the nation, bringing to 299 the total number of grants awarded. JUMP projects have provided more than 9,200 youth with mentors. Grantees range in size from small organizations that focus on mentoring alone, to larger organizations that offer mentoring as one of many services to children and families. JUMP funds support school-based, community-based, and faith-based projects serving youth of all races and ethnic origins. (See sidebar for more on OJJDP’s National Faith-Based Mentoring Recruitment Initiative.) Some JUMP projects are gender specific and some target populations such as teen parents, court-involved youth, youth living in residential facilities, and youth who are reentering their communities from juvenile facilities.

JUMP grantees receive awards for a 3-year project period, with the specific goal of becoming self-sustaining. Preliminary findings from the JUMP National Evaluation show that many grantees have successfully developed new funding streams.

Coach a Kid in the Game of Life . . .

As part of its continuing effort to support mentoring nationwide, OJJDP recently developed a promotional campaign and Web page to encourage adults to become mentors and to facilitate the establishment of mentoring relationships. The “Coach a Kid in the Game of Life” mentoring Web page (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ojjdp/mentoring), which was advertised in the official programs of Major League Baseball’s League Championships and World Series, provides interested adults with information about mentoring and links to mentoring organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the I Have a Dream Foundation. A link to the MENTOR National Mentoring Partnership (www.mentoring.org) allows adults to find mentoring opportunities in their community by simply entering their ZIP code.

Ad for OJJDP's new Coach a Kid in the Game of Life web page

OJJDP’s Mentoring Activity Under the JJDP Act of 2002

As specified in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002, OJJDP’s mentoring program will be consolidated with several other program areas under the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Block Grant Program. OJJDP will continue to support the development of mentoring programs through block grants, with a special emphasis on helping states develop mentoring programs that use the special expertise of faith-based and other community-based organizations.


Reaching Out to the Faith-Based Community To Recruit Mentors

Through its National Faith-Based Mentoring Recruitment Initiative, OJJDP is supporting the National Mentoring Partnership and the National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM) in a campaign to recruit and refer adult mentors from the faith-based community. The “More Mentors for Youth Campaign” will educate NNYM affiliates (including 250,000 youth workers and 100,000 churches) about mentoring and will help NNYM develop and implement a recruitment and referral strategy. For more information about this new mentoring initiative and to tell your mentoring story, visit www.mentoryouth.com.


The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

News @ a Glance is OJJDP�s bimonthly newsletter, bringing you up-to-date notices of agency activities, recent publications, funding opportunities, and upcoming events—with an emphasis on providing quick access to online sources for publications and other resources. Let us know what types of features would be most useful to you (e-mail [email protected]).

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