Mentoring Youth

A consistent relationship with a caring adult can make all the difference in 

a young person’s life. Successful mentoring relationships have been shown 

to increase self-esteem, improve academic achievement, and decrease the 

likelihood of substance abuse and delinquent acts by youth. 

To help ensure positive outcomes for youth, the Office of Juvenile Justice 

and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funds effective mentoring programs 

and practices. OJJDP’s mentoring grants also fund research, evaluation, and 

training and technical assistance. 

Together with its partners, the Office is working to boost mentor recruitment, 

enhance mentor-mentee matches, and increase the number of youth who 

have mentors. From 2017 through the first half of 2019, OJJDP-funded 

programs recruited 95,000 new mentors and served more than 600,000 youth 

nationwide. 

Programs

Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative 

Through this initiative, OJJDP funds one-on-one, group, and peer mentoring 

services to youth who are at high risk for juvenile justice system involvement, 

including youth impacted by opioids and those on probation. The initiative 

supports national, regional, and local organizations as they strengthen and 

expand their mentoring activities.

Specialized Services and Mentoring for Child and Youth 

Victims of Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation1

Grants awarded under this program help organizations provide comprehensive 

support services and interventions for youth who are at risk of or who are 

victims of child sexual exploitation, domestic sex trafficking, or labor trafficking.

Training and Technical Assistance

National Mentoring Resource Center

The center offers comprehensive information on mentoring programs, best 

practices, tools, and research. Providing access to free training and technical 

assistance is one of the many ways the center enhances the capacity of 

practitioners and communities to develop, implement, and expand effective 

mentoring practices.

For More Information

Access more information about OJJDP’s mentoring programs at 

ojjdp.ojp.gov/programs/mentoring.

Funding

Between fiscal years 2017 and 

2019, OJJDP awarded $228.8 

million to help increase mentoring 

opportunities for youth and to 

improve the quality and impact of 

the mentoring they receive.

` Fiscal Year 2019—$84 million

` Fiscal Year 2018—$82.3 million 

` Fiscal Year 2017—$63.5 million

Caren Harp, Administrator April 2020

From the Field

NCJ 253045

Office of Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention

ojjdp.ojp.gov

The National 4-H Council is one of 

many mentoring programs OJJDP 

supports. Clyde Van Dyke, winner of 

the 2019 4-H Youth in Action Award, 

shared how the club empowered 

him to overcome personal 

challenges, including a lack of role 

models for educational success.

“Because of 4-H and the adults 

who have supported me, I’m not a 

dropout,” he says proudly. “[I’m in 

college] to pursue a career in digital 

forensics—a path I never would 

have discovered without 4-H.”

Through the 4-H Club, Mr. Van Dyke 

learned how to create maps to 

visualize data, a technique known 

as “geospatial mapping.” He now 

uses geospatial mapping to help 

communities better understand the 

prevalence, trends, and contributing 

factors to critical issues such as 

the opioid epidemic. Mr. Van Dyke 

is also giving back by mentoring 

young people in elementary schools 

near his hometown.

1

 In fiscal year 2019, category 1 of this program was funded under OJJDP’s Youth Mentoring and Missing and 

Exploited Children funding streams.