Juvenile crime and delinquency often appear pervasive and intractable in poor, urban communities. While there are many successful approaches that reduce recidivism for individual offenders, strategies that reduce overall juvenile offending in a given locality are few and far between. Furthermore, strategies that achieve short-term juvenile recidivism may still fail to launch youth into productive
futures, leaving them still at risk for involvement in the adult criminal justice system. Omega Mentoring Youth (OMY), Inc. a non-profit corporation serving the State of Ohio, proposes an approach that has the potential to dramatically reduce current – and future offending –youth in a given neighborhood. (OMY) proposes to implement and evaluate a new project that will match 100 youth involved in juvenile justice-system and live in a local neighborhood, with mentors and other resources provided by the local faith community. By connecting youth in a residential placement with stable, long-term social networks that provide support, accountability, and connection to resources, (OMY) expects to see both a reduction in re-offending, and improved long-term outcomes for youth who participate in the demonstration.
