A new study that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice, funded identifies promising practices and strategies to improve the point of referral for high-risk youth in juvenile justice settings. Researching the Referral Stage of Youth Mentoring in Six Juvenile Justice Settings: An Exploratory Analysis examines best practices for referring youth to mentoring when they are in juvenile detention, corrections, and probation; delinquency court; teen court/youth court (diversion programs); and dependency court. A delinquency prevention and intervention option that capitalizes on the resources of local communities and caring individuals, mentoring has emerged as a promising delinquency reduction strategy for high-risk youth. This quantitative and qualitative research study provides a deeper understanding of how youth are referred to mentoring services, challenges of the referral process, examples of effective strategies to face the challenges, and action steps. A team that included Global Youth Justice, National Partnership for Juvenile Services, and MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership conducted the research.

Presenters at the forum will include:

• Barbara Tatem Kelley, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, USDOJ
• Dr. J. Mitchell Miller, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Pamela Clark, National Center for Youth in Custody
• Mary Midyette, Team Up Mentoring Program