LATM's Evidence-Based Group Mentoring for At-Risk Youth in the Counties of Los Angeles and San Diego

Founded in the aftermath of the infamous 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest, Los Angeles Mentoring (LATM) is a pioneer of team-based group mentoring and has demonstrated a 30-year history of effectively managing and overseeing a mentoring program serving historically underserved students in need, in under-resourced areas of Los Angeles. LATM proposes to expand its existing programming within the state of California, specifically in the communities served by middle schools in the Los Angeles and San Diego Unified School Districts. The project will enable LATM to recruit and train 864 mentors to provide research-based enhanced mentoring to 3,204 at-risk middle school youth over the three-year project period. LATM will expand its programming to include both in-person mentoring (“TeamWorks”) and virtual mentoring (“e-Works”), thereby contributing to greater accessibility and overcoming barriers to services or opportunities. Mentoring teams will participate in grade-level curricula designed to increase protective factors, develop social-emotional learning skills, and reduce the likelihood of negative behaviors and outcomes. New curriculum will be implemented to address the impact of bullying and cyberbullying and increase empathy among mentees. Among multiple goals, objectives, and intended outcomes of the program, LATM will increase protective factors such as improved attendance and academic performance, improved persistence and resilience, and established relationship-building with peers and adults. LATM will also promote greater family involvement within its programming. In order to measure progress toward meeting project goals and objectives, LATM will work with an external consultant to track performance measures, collect and analyze data, and report on internal progress and achievement of outcomes.