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The Mentoring Center’s Youth Services Division specializes
in working with the most highly at-risk youth, those youth who
are no longer simply at-risk but immersed in their risk behaviors.
Most of the youth The Mentoring Center (TMC) serves are incarcerated
or formally incarcerated, on probation, parole, or facing expulsion
from school.
TMC utilizes a “Transformative Mentoring” approach
to serve highly at-risk youth. Transformative Mentoring/Intervention
is an intentional, structured, systemic and corrective intervention
focused on personally transforming the attitude and mental framework
of a disrupted human development cycle. It is an intense service
delivery system. TMC’s approach includes a group-mentoring
program that is curriculum based and long term. The ultimate
goal is to change the mentality in the youth that gives rise
to destructive behavior.
TMC’s Transition/Transformative Curriculum is designed
for Character Development, Cognitive Restructuring, Spiritual
Development, Life Skills Training, Anger Management, and Employability
Skills. Once the mentality and attitudes are successfully addressed,
the youth are then ready to benefit from TMC’s follow-up
and support services including educational assistance, employment
training, job placement, housing, clothing, transportation,
and referrals for substance abuse counseling and mental health
therapy.
TMC's Programs Include:
Transition Program: A 24-week intensive
program for young people incarcerated in California Youth Authority
with re-entry services when they are released.
Positive Minds Group: A group-mentoring
program conducted out of our downtown Oakland offices serving
highly at-risk youth ages 14-25. The eight-month, open enrollment
program serves both males and females. The Positive Minds Group
also has four youth coordinators, young people who have gone
through the program and are doing well and serve as peer mentors.
Positive Minds Group On-Location:
In response to several requests to bring our programs to schools
and other locations, TMC created the PMG On-Location program
that is an abbreviated form of the Positive Minds Group. TMC
has conducted this program in high schools, community centers,
and group homes.
Project Choice: A federally funded
City of Oakland program serving “serious and violent”
youth and adult offenders. In July 2003, The Mentoring Center
became the program’s lead agency for the youth offenders,
serving 20 wards in the California Youth Authority coming home to
Oakland. Project Choice works with the youth for six months
to a year prior to their parole in group and one-on-one sessions.
The program pairs each youth with a case manager that serves
as a mentor as well as a monitor and supervisor of the young
person through their Life Plan.
Pathways to Change: In July 2003,
TMC became the lead agency for Pathways to Change, a City and
County funded initiative. Pathways to Change
is a pre-adjudication program targeting repeat juvenile offenders
in Oakland. Pathways to Change is based on successful models
in other cities that target a similar population and have proven
to reduce recidivism. The program pairs repeat offenders with
case managers who serve as mentors and role models while providing
on-going supervision and brokering services. Pathways to Change
case managers are subcontracted through partnering agencies
and are supervised by a centralized Program Director.
Proud Parenting Program: Designed to train young men on the importance of being a father and train them on how to be one. A manhood and fatherhood development program funded by the State of California through CYA. The program consists of weekly group meetings every Tuesday evening an occasional family outings and eventually one-on-one mentor matches.
Project First: Project First is a violence prevention program that serves first time youth offenders in order to prevent their further involvement with the juvenile justice system and broker services for the youth, including mental health assessment. The program is a partnership between the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County Probation Department and Safe Passages with The Mentoring Center serving as the lead agency and the Center for Family Counseling and Covenant House as partnering agencies.
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