Youth Mentorship
Our lived-experience Credible Messengers facilitate our Youth Mentorship Program. It serves close to 300 young people yearly, aged 13 to 24. A current government contract serves mentees who are on Juvenile Probation, including but not limited to those under Gang Supervision, Youthful Offender Supervision, or otherwise appropriately referred by a Probation Officer through the Community Resource Directory. Curriculums can include Forward Thinking & Interactive Journaling, Healthy Relationships, Seeking Safety, and Parents on a Mission for young parents. However, if help is requested and a commitment to work hard is recognized, no young person is ever turned away from Youth Empowerment. Mentors are trained to work with traumatized individuals. The program is funded by individual fundraising, contracts and grants.
“This is the epitome of grassroots, community organizing. Arthur and Gabby are on the ground floor of a phenomenal movement that I really believe can become a national model of an exemplary, replicable program to serve youth who are on a pipeline to prison.”
– Dana Brown, San Diego Commission on Gang Prevention & Intervention.