Undergraduate Mentors as Positive Change Agents against Youth Recidivism

• In Event: 4155 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Current Policies and New Directions in Youth Justice

Abstract

The Helping Offenders Prosper through Employment (HOPE) is a university-based mentoring program that trains undergraduate students to serve as positive role models to incarcerated youth serving a long-term sentence in Indiana’s juvenile correctional facilities. We first describe the program’s mission, principles and components. We follow with preliminary cases highlighting HOPEs impact from statements by youth, practicing mentors, and graduates of the HOPE program. Data collection is ongoing through May 2019 on the impact of HOPE mentoring for current and graduated HOPE mentors and will be included in the conference presentation.

Authors

• Theresa Ochoa, Indiana University

• Niki Weller, Indiana University Kokomo

• Molly Riddle, Indiana University

• Corinne Datchi, Seton Hall University