Hosted by Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota on October 30, 2012. The Mentoring Best Practices Research Project, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), is being conducted in collaboration with Global Youth Justice and the National Partnership for Juvenile Services.

1. Improving Mentoring Services
for Youth in Hennepin County
Juvenile Justice Settings

2. Agenda
11:30am Lunch & Welcome
11:55am Mentoring Programs – Current Hennepin County
Partners
12:15pm Introductions & Reflection
12:45pm Research Roundup
1:15pm State of Mentoring in Hennepin County
1:30pm Break
1:45pm Improving Mentoring Services Dialogue
3:45pm Resources & Evaluations

3. Project Overview

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

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

8. 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

9. Why are we
here today?

10. Mentoring Programs

11. Research Round Up

12. 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?

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

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

15. Key Findings

16. 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.

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

18. 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

19. • Juvenile justice settings use
mentoring60%
• Mentoring programs serve
youth from juvenile justice40%
• Mentoring programs use
individually based mentoring80%
• More likely when programs
utilized Elements of Effective
Practice for Mentoring
Positive
Outcomes
Key Findings: National Survey

20. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

26. 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

27. 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
Key Findings: Site Visits
Reported Advantages of Embedded Mentoring Programs

28. 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.

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

30. Definitions

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

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

33. What is the
difference
between
detention and
corrections?

34. Juvenile Corrections
Juvenile DetentionSecure, 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.

35. 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.

36. Delinquency Court
Juvenile DetentionDelinquency 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, offense
and/or violation.

37. Youth Court/ Teen Court
Juvenile DetentionDiversion 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.

38. Dependency Court
Juvenile DetentionDependency Courts involve a
juvenile (child/youth), typically in
cases of abuse, neglect and
mistreatment. The Dependency
Court is most commonly associated
with foster care, abuse and
neglect issues involving youth
younger than 18.

39. Mentoring Best Practices

40.  Places referred youth in appropriate mentor
programs
 Assists JP staff and mentor programs to
strengthen communication
 Bridges mentor best practices and Juvenile
Services to support youth, families, JS and
mentor programs. E.G. 12 month requirement
and one-one mentoring.
 Understands and can speak for both entities.
 Ensure mentors visit youth and/or stay in
contact with mentor if in placement
 Ensure mentors are updated when client
moves, changes numbers

41.  Develop clear expectations for mentor
programs
 Enhance communication between mentor
program and JP staff
 Identify youth that are suited for each
mentor program
 Ensure internal and external mentor
programs have the ability to serve youth in
JJ settings
 Present when making decisions about
mentoring for JJ youth

42.  Centralized location to make all mentor
partners more accessible
 Standard Referral Form
 Mentor Chart of Services
 Establish PO as first point of contact to
connect mentor and client/mentee
 Prepare client for match guide
 Mentor Monthly Progress Reports to Update
POs

43. Centralized location to make all JP mentor partners more accessible.

49.  Identify youth suitable for each mentor
program
 Conduct Sight visits to develop stronger
working relationship with mentoring partners
 Training/Overview for mentor programs
 Establishing expectations for mentors
 Update to staff about referral process

50. Improving Mentoring
Services for Youth
in Hennepin County

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

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

55. 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

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

58. Additional Resources
Juvenile Detention
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention – Mentoring Resources
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/