Sunday, September 27, 2009

DOJ grant pays for peer mentors during post-TYC reentry

Here's something they're doing with federal grant funds in South Texas that merits expansion statewide. According to the San Antonio Business Journal:

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will award Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas $625,000 in grant funding over the next three years to provide mentoring services to juvenile offenders being released from Texas Youth Commission facilities.

The money will support Big Brothers Big Sisters’ “Second Chance Mentoring Project.” The program will employ a peer-mentoring strategy that will involve frequent contact between the mentor, Big Brothers Big Sisters staff, the youth offender and Texas Youth Commission staff. Youth offenders face multiple challenges when re-entering the community. Having the support of a peer mentor can help foster a different perspective for the offender, according to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency is a component of the Office of Justice Programs within the U.S. Department of Justice.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is a really cool idea! I am interested to see how this works out. I would love to see this expand to different areas of the state.

Anonymous said...

We seem to constantly be on the lookout for father figures or other volunteers to show an interest in today's youth. Yet, it doesn't seem to occur to us to try to introduce the biological fathers to these youth and their mothers.

We have given these millions of men a pass and always view them as single and think that being on the prowl as a natural state for them. We don't expect them to ever look back at the results of their casual affairs. We think that hit and run makes sense and we look and look for a substitute who will have an interest when their blood relative shows none.

PirateFriedman said...

Well put 2:53. But you didn't propose any ideas on how to bring us back to those days.

Mainly I hate this program already because it came from the federal government and is unconstitutional. The founders would have been appalled.

Anonymous said...

2:53 I think you are accurately targeting a specific culture.
Pirate just because it comes from the feds doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I know when President Husain spoke to the captive audience at our public schools people thought it was bad. In reality what he said was good, unfortunately he was only addressing the children 2:53 speaks about. That’s why it needed to be somewhat mandatory because the parents wouldn’t watch it with their kids. My wife and I watched it with our private/prep school kids and they couldn’t understand why the presidents content was so lame. My 5th grader was actually critique the presidents use of grammar while my sophomore who is on her high school mock trial team criticized his delivery. I was a proud parent needless to say.
I would like to see the program expanded throughout the state and at the same time make use of former successful tyc alumni. Staying out of the system is about breaking cycles and it’s good to learn from someone who knows how to do that.
Sheldon tyc#47333 c/s

Anonymous said...

What or who is distracting these millions of men? Could it be other females who make it so easy for them to turn their backs on those millions of single mothers?

PirateFriedman said...

03:12:00, the single mothers have little need for those men.
They can get welfare or child support.

So eliminate welfare and stop requiring men to pay child support and these single mothers will start acting better.

Anonymous said...

We seem to have gotten off on a tangent here. This is awesome news for kids!

Anonymous said...

This just in judge throws out ACLU suit against TYC.

Anonymous said...

Which suit was that and why is this not surprising!!

RAS said...

I see two possible problems with taking fed money. 1 you give them control of the mentoring project and signnificant influence with anything connected to it. The 2nd is the money is going to one of the most predominantly democratic regions of the state, is thereany way for this money to end up in supporters pockets. Is this a combination of Acorn and grade school kids singing "Barrack Hussein Obama"?

PirateFriedman said...

Those are valid points RAS.

But the big reason I oppose federal funding, aside from it being unconstitutional, is that state are more accountable than the federal government.

If Texas screws up and wastes tons of money on stupid programs, I can move to Oklahoma, Nevada or wherever. But if the US government screws up and raises my taxes too high, I have more limited options.(Though Mexico is looking better every day).