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Overview:
American Institutes for Research is partnering with the YMCA of San Francisco's Reach and RiseŽ program to test whether pairing research-informed cognitive behavioral treatment practices with mentoring programming could yield targeted benefits to high-risk youth. Reach and RiseŽ is a national initiative that prepares adult mentors to assume paraprofessional therapeutic roles with youth at increased risk for delinquency and who live or attend school in poor communities. The study will examine the extent to which cognitive behavioral treatment enhancements to the Reach and Rise mentoring model can impact the lives of high-risk youth. The enhancements include pre-match training modules for mentors on cognitive behavioral treatment techniques, strategies for augmenting the youth's growth (i.e., case management plan), mentor-supported targeted "check-in" tools, and a cognitive behavioral treatment parent education and support component.
This project is funded through the OJJDP FY 2016 Practitioner-Researcher Partnership in Cognitive Behavioral Mentoring Program, which supported a partnership between a practitioner in the development and implementation of a mentoring program enhanced with cognitive behavioral treatment and a research partner to conduct a rigorous impact and process evaluation.
Goals and Objectives:
American Institutes for Research is comparing the effectiveness in 29 YMCA Reach and Rise sites among three conditions: (1) cognitive behavioral treatment-enhanced mentoring, (2) "business-as-usual" mentoring, and (3) no mentoring. OJJDP expects that the results of this project will advance understanding about the effectiveness of combining cognitive behavioral treatment principles with mentoring approaches and how such an approach might be scaled to multiple sites to better equip mentoring programs to meet the needs of high-risk youth.
The three primary objectives of the study include investigating:
- The effects of the cognitive behavioral treatment enhancements on mentoring relationship quality and youth outcomes, including prevention of delinquency and juvenile justice involvement.
- The implementation of cognitive behavioral treatment enhancements.
- The costs and benefits of the enhancements.
Milestones:
The program sites have implemented the enhanced practices and are enrolling youth into the mentoring program. Data collection is underway and will include surveys with parents, youth, and mentors administered twice 12 months apart; surveys of program staff at various points across the study; and records from local juvenile justice agencies. After data collection and analysis, OJJDP expects to post a final technical report summarizing the findings and research implications in 2021.
Contact Information:
Barbara Tatem Kelley, Social Science Analyst
Barbara.Kelley@usdoj.gov | 202-616-9517
G. Roger Jarjoura, Ph.D., Principal Researcher
rjarjoura@air.org | 650- 376-6457
American Institutes for Research
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