The fiscal 2010 omnibus spending bill signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 16 adds $20 million – for a total of $100 million – to the pool of funds available for competitive grants in a key mentoring program.
The White House had requested $80 million for the Youth Mentoring Grants program, which is run by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), but congressional appropriators boosted the total. They also added the requirement that the administration report within 60 days on the criteria and methodology it would use to award the grants. Lawmakers said that they expected “OJJDP will take all steps necessary to ensure fairness and objectivity in the award of these and future grants.”
OJJDP says in its 2010 proposed program plan that mentoring will be supported in several ways, including funding national organizations to strengthen and expand existing mentoring activities; building capacity of and incorporating research into youth mentoring efforts at all levels of government; and expanding communities’ ability to extend mentoring services to “populations of at-risk youth who are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, special physical or mental challenges, or other situations identified by the community [as] in need of mentoring services.”
[From Youth Today - Blog Detail]
