Bloomberg Philanthropies-Supported Criminal Justice Mentorship Program Scales across Country
With grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies and oversight from the Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity, the Department of Probation funded 19 community-based organizations to hire mentors for people ages 16 to 24. These weren't just any mentors but formerly criminal justice–involved men and women from the same neighborhood as the youth they served. They ran group mentoring sessions, facilitated a cognitive-behavioral curriculum that challenged antisocial thinking patterns and were available 24/7 for one-on-one support and crisis intervention in the neighborhood.
The mentors served young people designated as "high risk" by the Department of Probation. Most of them had already committed at least one felony, were disconnected from school and work, and were not complying with the terms of their probation. They were generally unresponsive to probation officers and social-services professionals. Yet they would listen to certain adults who had been through the same pain, trauma and stigmatization that they were experiencing. We called these adults credible messengers because they were able to engage young people who were unwilling to listen to anyone else.
The program, Arches Transformative Mentoring Intervention, has been replicated in cities from Washington, D.C., to San Diego. With 600,000 men and women returning home from prison each year, there is an abundant supply of credible messengers who, with training and support, can mentor youth and improve community safety...