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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • March 25, 2015
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How meaningful is mentoring to high risk youth?
NNPA — Available data shows the impact of mentoring on youth at high risk for violence may be limited, but advocates said the overall benefits of mentoring suggest it is a worthwhile undertaking nonetheless. In nearby Baltimore, during Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s state of the city address, the mayor announced “the start of an intense focus on our African American young men” in an effort to reduce the number of African-American homicides in Baltimore City, which totaled 189 in 2014. As part of this effort, the city will begin working to recruit men to serve as mentors, tutors, and job training coaches in order to connect them with existing organizations in need of volunteers. In 2014, 15 juveniles died in homicides in Baltimore, according to data released by the Baltimore Police Department. Even if all 15 youths were African American, they would make up just 7.9 percent of the 189 total homicides. That fact suggests that an intense focus on young men, even if entirely successful, would not result in substantial reductions in African-American homicides overall. However, given the age of the victims, few would argue with
even nominal reductions in those numbers. Available data on the impact of mentoring on youth violence is limited. A 2013 report by the University of Chicago Crime Lab studied a sports-based after-school mentoring initiative known as BAM, or Becoming a Man, that was combined with in-school cognitive behavioral therapy program. The program lasted one year and involved 2,740 randomly assigned boys from disadvantaged Chicago neighborhoods. The study found a 44 percent reduction in violent crime arrests among participants compared to their nonparticipating counterparts, as well as a 36 percent decline in non violent-crime arrests. But these reductions did not last beyond the program year, and the study suggests the reductions likely had more to do with the therapy than the mentoring. However, the study did find that the program produced other important benefits. “While the crime impacts do not persist (beyond the program year), impacts on schooling outcomes do, with gains that we estimate could translate into higher graduation rates of 3 to 10 percentage points,”
Justen Boyd, left, a family advocate spends time mentoring youth and talking about school, life, their neighborhood and why an education is important. the study’s authors wrote. In another study conducted in Chicago, youths arriving at an emergency room with assault injuries were recruited and paired with a mentor with whom they would meet six or more times over a two- to sixmonth period. For those participants with high participation, the study found “significant decreases in misdemeanor behavior and physical aggression,” and a follow-
up assessment found “additional reductions for the intervention group in reports of fighting and subsequent fight-related injuries.” That program targeted youth already involved in violence, and thus at higher risk for violence, making it a different model than the one currently proposed in Baltimore. However, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen has said that the city seeks to identify (continued on page 4)