Youth Collaboratory Inc

Building Community: Several Individual, social, and environmental risk factors increase the likelihood that young people are at risk of victimization, delinquency, or involvement in the juvenile justice system. Youth Collaboratory supports organizations in utilizing evidence-based community building practices to reduce these risk factors and increase protective factors that build resiliency. This includes leveraging formal and informal mentoring relationships to broaden connections to other networks, supports, and opportunities for young people. Grounded in evidence-based practice and a Positive Youth Development framework, Youth Collaboratory created the Mentoring+ program model. This model supports building communities with young people. Organizations using the Mentoring+ model have experienced several promising outcomes, including: 100% of mentees at high risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system have not offended or re-offended, 97% of mentors maintained a relationship with a mentee for at least a year, and 75% of mentees demonstrated increased social competence. Through this work, Youth Collaboratory has supported programs in 37 states who serve more than 160,000 youth and families annually.