DOJ Latino Youth Mentoring Program

Application Due Date: June 20, 2008

Youth gangs continue to have a significant adverse impact on youth, families, and communities. In some communities, Latino youth face a number of personal, economic, social, and cultural challenges that make them vulnerable to aggressive recruiting efforts by Latino gangs. Once recruited into such gangs, youth enter an environment that demands complete loyalty to the gang. Often, they can only leave the gang at risk of death. Research has shown that gang involvement is a significant problem in the Latino communities of today. This solicitation focuses on developing and supporting a peer mentoring program that proactively reaches youth before they are recruited by gangs to develop and strengthen protective factors against gang involvement and other problem behaviors. Successful applicants will include local school districts with a demonstrable Latino gang problem committed to or already working with nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and other community partners to provide mentoring services to at-risk youth. Targeted programs will feature schools with large populations of non-native, Hispanic youth.

For more information
ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2008/LatinoMentoring.pdf