1. Mentoring High-Risk
Youth in Juvenile
Justice Settings
Welcome to the
California Mentoring Partnership,
Northern California Training!
Trainers: Sarah Kremer and Roger Jarjoura, Ph.D.

3. Why are we
here today?

4. Learning Objectives
Participants will gain an understanding of:
• Six juvenile justice settings
• The advantages and challenges of offering
mentoring services within each setting
• Promising practices mentoring within or in
partnership with each setting with a focus on
the referral stage

5. Definitions

6. Juvenile
Detention
Dependency Juvenile
Court Corrections
Six Juvenile
Justice
Settings
Youth
Juvenile
Court/Teen
Probation
Court
Delinquency
Court

7. Juvenile Detention
Secure facilities that provide
for the short-term,
temporary, safe custody
of juveniles alleged to have
committed a delinquent
act/offense

8. Juvenile Corrections
Secure, residential facilities that
provide for the long-term,
safe custody of juveniles
adjudicated on felony or multiple
misdemeanor offenses. These
facilities typically are considered
to be high security.

9. What is the
difference
between
detention and
corrections?

10. Juvenile Probation
Community-based
corrections program where
probation officers supervise and
monitor youth under court
jurisdiction, ensuring they comply
with all court orders. Probation
officer provides direction, guidance,
rehabilitation.

11. Delinquency Court
Delinquency Courts have
jurisdiction over juveniles,
juvenile delinquents, status offenders
and children and youth in need of
supervision. The Delinquency Court is
most commonly associated with the
Juvenile Justice System and juveniles
who have committed a crime, status
offense and/or violation.

12. Youth Court/ Teen Court
Diversion programs in which peers
sentence juveniles for minor crimes,
offenses and/or violations. These
programs are administered locally
by law enforcement agencies, probation
departments, delinquency courts,
schools and local nonprofit
organizations.

13. Dependency Court
The Dependency Court is most
commonly associated with foster
care, abuse and neglect
issues involving children and
youth younger than 18.

14. Project Overview

15. Project Overview
The Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is
a leader in recognizing that well-
designed and well-implemented
mentoring can have a tremendous,
positive impact on a youth's life
chances in particular, “high-risk”
youth.

16. Project Overview
OJJDP funded Researching the Referral
Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile
Justice Settings:
• Juvenile Corrections
• Juvenile Detention
• Juvenile Probation
• Delinquency Court
• Youth/Teen Court
• Dependency Court

17. Project Overview
This exploratory research is designed
to inform the mentoring referral
process for delivery of mentoring
services to “high-risk” youth for the
purpose of reducing delinquent
behavior, alcohol and drug abuse,
truancy, and other problem behaviors.

18. Partner
Research Team
Organizations
J. Mitchell Miller,
MENTOR
Ph.D.
Global Youth Justice Holly V. Miller, Ph.D.
National Partnership
J.C. Barnes, Ph.D.
for Juvenile Services

19. Research Questions
• What are the best practices in identifying and
referring youth to mentoring programs across
distinct juvenile justice settings?
• What is the capacity of the mentoring
community to support the youth identified for
mentoring from six juvenile justice settings?
• What intermediate outcomes are achieved by
mentoring throughout the settings?

20. Qualitative Data
Site visits
Interviews with staff and
administrators
Questionnaires

21. Quantitative Data: Survey Sample
Program
respondents
hailed from a
All 50 United
The survey variety of
States were
netted a large community
represented by
sample size (N types ranging
the survey
= 1,197) from urban,
respondents
suburban, rural,
and tribal
communities.

22. Key Findings

23. Juvenile Detention
While mentoring is not used as a
diversion from adjudication per se,
it is, in many instances, viewed as
one component of a holistic
approach to delinquency prevention
and intervention.

24. Conceptual Model of the “Typical”
Referral Process
• Identification phase
Step • Sources of identification: law enforcement or juvenile probation, family, social worker
1
• Court appearance
Step • Types of court: youth, family, dependency, delinquency
2
• Eligibility assessment by court
Step3 • Judge or other governing body assess youth for eligibility in mentor program
Step • Referral to mentor program by court
4
• Referral received by mentor program
Step • Eligibility determination and assessment by mentor program
5
Step • Potential mentor identified
6
Step • Match made between mentor and mentee
7

25. Who refers youth in JJ settings?
Probation officers
Judges
Magistrates
Social Workers and Case Managers
Public Defenders
Administrative Office of the Courts
Police Officers
Court Clerks
Public Defenders
School Officials and Administrators

26. Key Findings: National Survey
• Juvenile justice settings use
60% mentoring
• Mentoring programs serve youth
40% from juvenile justice
• Mentoring programs use
80% individually based mentoring
Positive • More likely when programs
utilized Elements of Effective
Outcomes Practice for Mentoring

27. Key Findings: National Survey
Risk Assessment Prior to Referral De
Majority of juvenile justice settings reported
between 76 to 100% of youth are charged with a
crime prior to being referred to a mentoring
program
Relatedly, the majority of juvenile justice settings
reported always assessing youth for their level
of risk prior to making a referral to mentoring
program.

28. Key Findings: National Survey and Site Visits
Top Reasons for Match Failure
Serious mental
Youth or family
health issues on
refusal or lack of
the part of the
support
youth
Lack of suitable
adult mentors

29. Key Findings: Site Visits
Staff meetings
Mentoring juvenile justice youth is
more successful when mentoring
program staff are involved in
regular probation or other staff
meetings.

30. Key Findings: Site Visits
Voluntary
participation
Youth have a greater degree
of commitment to the
mentoring experience when
participation is voluntary.

31. Key Findings: Site Visits
Knowledge
about Juvenile
Justice System
Mentor/staff should have a
background understanding of the
Juvenile Justice System.

32. Key Findings: Site Visits
Close
working
partnerships
Probation officers and other juvenile
justice staff working in close
partnership with mentoring program
staff is key to successes.

33. Definition of Embedded Programs
A program that is housed
inside a juvenile justice
setting either:
• developed by the juvenile
justice setting or
• implemented by an outside
mentoring program

34. Key Findings: Site Visits
Reported Advantages of Embedded Mentoring Programs
Greater access to information about
youth’s needs
More seamless referral process
Greater success in matching and shorter
waiting lists
More understood and valued by juvenile
justice staff
Better able to track youth’s long term
outcomes

35. Specialized Programs
Mentoring programs with a
specific and/or sole purpose of
serving youth from a specific JJ
setting have an advantageous
level of knowledge, skill and ability
in providing effective mentoring
services for a wide range of high-
risk youth involved in JJ settings.

36. Youth in longer-
term placements can
build longer-term
mentoring
relationships.

37. Lunch Discussion Questions
1.Why do mentoring programs want to work
with youth involved with juvenile
probation?
2.Why do those who work in juvenile justice
settings want youth involved with
mentoring programs and mentors?
3.Which of our youth are best suited for
mentoring?

38. Small Groups
How are youth from this
What best practices must
setting identified and
we adopt in our
referred to mentoring
community in order to
programs in our
serve youth from this
community? What works
juvenile justice setting?
well? What has not?
What are the pros and
cons of mentoring for
youth involved in this
setting?

40. Resources: Profiles,
MOUs, and Elements of
Effective Practice

42. Resources: Setting Profiles
Overview of content:
• Definition of Setting
• Youth Served
• Frequently Asked Questions
• What's Working
• Example of Promising
Strategies
• Challenges and Action Steps
• Terms and Definitions
• Resources

44. Resources: MOU’s
Overview of content:
• Definitions
• Tips and Strategies for Writing
MOU’s
• Policy and Programmatic
Discussion Points
• Training and Technical Assistance
Resources

45. What is an MOU?
Document that
Provides a
describes a common
framework for
understanding of a
partnership
working relationship
MOU
Outlines a
Not a binding
commitment
contract
between parties

46. Why is an
MOU
important?

47. The MOU provides a
structure for a working
relationship and clarifies
what each of the partners
will do to further the
collaboration.

48. Opportunities
for Partnership

49. Relationships MOUs

50. Additional Resources
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention – Mentoring Resources
Juvenile Detention
http://www.ojjdp.gov/programs/mentoring.html
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention – Model Program
Guide/Mentoring
http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/progTypesMentoring.aspx
Global Youth Justice Website – Mentoring High Risk Youth Resources
http://www.globalyouthjustice.org/Mentoring.html
National Partnership for Juvenile Services – Mentoring High Risk Youth Resources
http://www.npjs.org/
MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership
http://www.mentoring.org/