The COPE Project (Community Organizations and Programs that Empower youth)

The Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, Category 3 (Mentoring Programs for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System) provides funding to support youth mentoring organizations that have a demonstrated partnership with a juvenile justice agency. The focus is to provide mentoring services to those youth screened as being low risk to public safety by a juvenile justice agency as part of an overall diversion approach with a goal of rehabilitation and accountability. This program is authorized and funded pursuant to Pub. L. No. 116-6, 133 Stat. 13, 115.

The Community Organizations and Programs that Empower youth (COPE) Project will target the crucial need to build protective factors among youth involved in the juvenile justice system in some of Southeast Louisiana’s most unsafe communities. A combination of individual, relationship, community, and societal factors contribute to the risk of youth violence. The project will systematically incorporate research and evidence-based practices into the design, which will complement and strengthen mentoring services through targeted family-engaging activities that will result in increased in-person staff contact, targeted referrals, training for families, and the end outcome of building protective factors for youth. The project targets system-involved youth ages 10–18 from the Baton Rouge and Hammond areas. The program proposes to serve a minimum of 180 youth through this effort. Progress towards Goals and Objectives (Outputs/Short-Term and Outcomes/Long-Term) will be tracked and monitored monthly, quarterly, biannually, and annually for continuous monitoring and project improvement. Outputs include increasing the number of and levels of participation in family-engaging activities, providing training and information supplements to participants, increasing the number of in-person contact with staff, increasing the number of referrals, and increasing the number of program partners to support the project. Outcomes include preventing juvenile delinquency, improving family relationships, improving prosocial community views, and improving peer relationships. CA/NCF