Mentoring Today

www.mentoringtoday.org

2309 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE
Washington DC 20020
Phone: 202-678-9001

Mentoring Today serves youth both before and after they are released from incarceration to support their successful reintegration into their families and community. Its advocates and mentors help youth with critical issues such as education, employment and housing as they enter adulthood. 

Through these comprehensive, client-centered services, Mentoring Today strives to improve the juvenile justice system and empowers young people to recognize their dreams and realize their aspirations. It endeavors to reduce the rate at which our participants return to criminal behavior and does this by helping youth increase their education and employment levels and by promoting positive youth development.

Stats:
Of the 35 youth served over the past year, 97 percent showed an increase in their education by re-enrolling in school or in a GED or a vocational program after their release from incarceration, graduating from high school, obtaining a GED, or enrolling in college.  (Among the general population of incarcerated youth in the U.S., 43 percent never return to school.)

71% of youth served by Mentoring Today obtained temporary, part-time, or full-time employment.

The overall recidivism rate for youth involved with Mentoring Today is 45 percent.  The national recidivism rate for 16-year-olds with 5 prior court referrals (which mirrors the “typical” new participant) is 81 percent.  The Mentoring Today program has effectively cut the recidivism rate in half for this high-risk population.