The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) invests in mentoring programs and services to help ensure positive outcomes for youth. Successful mentoring relationships have been shown to increase youth's self-esteem, improve academic achievement, and steer them away from delinquency, substance use, and other high-risk…

Barack Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" is designed to narrow persistent gaps that boys and young men of color confront often and to help all young people achieve their potential in college and career. An important part of this initiative is comprehensive mentoring that supports students in schools and in communities. Because…

As the only federal funding stream that provides dedicated funds for afterschool programs across the country, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative plays an important role in supporting the innovation that takes place in afterschool programs. Social innovation has been defined as "a novel solution to a social…

Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), a program operating on funds from the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), was initiated at Arkansas State University in 1989. The 60-day program is targeted to economically disadvantaged 14- and 15-year-olds who are on grade level and have been identified as being likely to drop out of high school, but are not…

A summary and highlight of the significant developments, major accomplishments and important research findings of the three years of operation of the Honolulu Buddy System Project is contained in this document. In addition, the implications that the research data have generated, along with further directions to be explored are included. Most…

An examination of hundreds of studies on the use of volunteers in mentoring programs, service programs, and local community change initiatives highlight the importance of screening, training, and volunteer management. Each year, more than 90 million Americans contribute more than 20 billion volunteer hours. Personal benefits of volunteering…