Author ORCID Identifier

Hobbs - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7913-5909

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

10-23-2019

Abstract

Employing an Intentional Mentoring Model for Delinquent Youth Delinquent youth often do not receive the opportunity to be mentored. This is especially true for youth who have committed serious law violations and are detained. In Nebraska, the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers (YRTCs) are the highest level of care for delinquent youth within the state. Under Nebraska law, a youth is committed to the YRTC only after all community-based services and every level of probation supervision has been exhausted (Sec. 43-286). In 2011, the Juvenile Justice Institute (JJI) agreed to teach a course on mentoring delinquent youth and to match university undergraduates to YRTC youth returning to the community. JJI anticipated it might be a short-lived course, as undergraduate students have relatively little “real life” experience, and they were being matched with high-need delinquent youth. JJI has operated the Juvenile Reentry Mentoring Project (JRMP) from 2011 to the present. If a traditional mentoring approach had been employed, it is likely that the program would have ended due to an inability to sustain matches. Instead, the project has been successful for both students and youth. Over the life of the project, a mixed methodical approach has been utilized to analyze and shape the Juvenile Reentry Mentoring Project (JRMP) model. Quantitative data were collected to inform the theory of change and create a program designed to serve the needs of a deep end juvenile justice population. Qualitative data was gathered from student participants. Results indicate that trust is an essential component of mentoring youth deep in the juvenile justice system.

Comments

Copyright held by author.

This was a conference publication presented at the University of New Mexico Mentoring Institute at 9am on October 23, 2019.

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