YouthBuild USA Awarded Grant to Support Youth Mentoring from Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

YouthBuild USA announces its selection to receive $8.9 million from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for a 3-year national mentoring program to serve 16 to 18 year old high risk and court involved youth who are enrolled in local YouthBuild programs across America. In announcing the national mentoring awards, U.S. Attorney General Holder said, "these grants will help steer young people away from criminal activities by providing them with healthy life alternatives, positive role models and direct contact with caring adults."

YouthBuild USA will utilize these funds to implement and enhance mentoring initiatives within selected local YouthBuild programs that already offer a full-time education, job training, community service, and leadership development program for disadvantaged youth without a high school diploma, but that historically have not included a formal one-on-one mentoring component to support young people after completion of the full-time program. We have long recognized this need. YouthBuild USA is defining a new mentoring model suitable for older teens who are undertaking the challenging path of climbing out of poverty through education, careers, and civic engagement.

This is the first grant ever awarded from the United States Department of Justice to YouthBuild USA. YouthBuild USA will target new mentoring services to more than 2,000 YouthBuild youth; train more than 1,500 adult mentors; and also strengthen the natural parent-child mentoring bond between hundreds of YouthBuild youth who are young parents and their children through a special focus on these relationships.

YouthBuild USA is among those rare national organizations which are prepared to act upon the critically pressing social and economic situation of crime and incarceration in America. About 40% of YouthBuild students had previously been court-involved, but through their participation in YouthBuild their recidivism rates are dramatically lower than among other court-involved young adults. Recent research by Professor Mark Cohen shows a return on investment of at least $10.80 for every dollar spent on a court-involved YouthBuild student. As a result of their experience in YouthBuild, regardless of their past behavior, they become eager to serve their communities, to become leaders and change agents and they are eager to transform their lives. These extraordinary young people “came back around” and deserve this second and third chance and are given adult responsibilities in YouthBuild programs. Peer pressure is harnessed and redirected in the YouthBuild program for purposes of serving as a positive force that shapes positive pro-social behaviors and attitudes in the young people involved. This new YouthBuild USA and U.S. Department of Justice initiative complements this philosophy through providing YouthBuild students with additional one-on-one lasting relationships with positive adult role models.

Also see: OJJDP Press Release