The dream program, INC. (dream) has a 25-year record of providing evidence-informed mentoring to youth in low-income households across 26 predominantly project-based housing developments in vermont,…

The Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $2,500,000 Project Grant under the Juvenile Mentoring Program (CFDA 16.726) to The Dream Program, Inc. The award will support the organization's "Village Mentoring" initiative, which provides one-on-one and team-based mentoring services to youth ages 6-17 in high-poverty, underserved communities across 56 affordable housing sites in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The project aims to build protective factors, enhance social-emotional skills, improve academic performance, and reduce the likelihood of juvenile delinquency and other high-risk behaviors among the target population. The Dream Program, Inc. will manage the grant and operations, leveraging partnerships with local universities, resident councils, and housing agencies to recruit and train undergraduate mentors who will work directly with youth participants over the 3-year project period from October 2024 to September 2027.

The dream program, INC. (dream) has a 25-year record of providing evidence-informed mentoring to youth in low-income households across 26 predominantly project-based housing developments in vermont, massachusetts, and pennsylvania. Dream will manage the grant and the operations of the village mentoring project (the project). Dream will grow and enhance an innovative mentoring model, village mentoring, to open up new pools of mentors and reach the most vulnerable youth around the northeast and mid- atlantic. Targeted communities will be located in connecticut, maine, massachusetts, new hampshire, new york, pennsylvania, and washington, DC. Village mentoring is a combination of one-on-one and team mentoring, with the goal of building protective factors for youth most at risk for delinquency. A single village mentoring site includes undergraduate mentors from a nearby university in partnership with a group of families and youth from a local affordable housing neighborhood. The project's target population is youth ages 617 in high-poverty, underserved neighborhoods with adverse childhood experiences. Dream reaches these youth by partnering with the resident councils and management agencies of affordable housing developments. As a result of this project, youth mentees across 56 low-income housing sites will have more supportive social environments that will reduce the likelihood of youth engaging in high-risk behaviors and becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.