THE NEED:
In Colorado alone, there are over 13,000 youth who live in an out-of-home placement during some portion of the year, an estimated 15,500 youth with an incarcerated parent, and over 7,000 youth on probation in the Denver metro area. Studies show that because of multiple risk factors, these youth are the most vulnerable to homelessness and incarceration as adults.
OUR MISSION:
Our mission at Friends for Youth is:
To support positive youth development for at-risk youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare systems by providing caring adult mentors, life enriching experiences and enhanced community connections resulting in successful life transitions
What it looks like:
- To facilitate long-term relationships between positive adult role models and youth.
- To encourage healthy physical, mental, social, and spiritual development of youth.
- To provide match supervision to the mentoring relationship in a way that diverts and/or encourages youth to exit the juvenile justice system, stay in school, and pursue personal goals.
- To provide community living assistance to youth who are emancipating out of the child welfare system into independent living.
- To engage community and faith-based volunteers in one-to-one and group mentoring opportunities.
With that mission in mind, Friends for Youth began in 1998 and has mentored over 1400 youth in the Denver metropolitan area. We currently serve over 250 youth annually through our one-to-one, group, site-based and success journey mentoring programs.
THE VEHICLE:
Mentoring is one of the most effective ways to help a young person. Research shows that youth who meet regularly with their mentors are less likely to begin using alcohol and drugs or to turn to violence and more likely to do better in school and to have better relationships with family and peers.