Helping Services for Youth & Families awarded federal grant

Helping Services for Youth & Families has been awarded a three-year federal grant set to begin Oct. 1, 2023, to expand Youth Mentoring services. The grant is administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and is one of 10 Mentoring for Youth Affected by Opioid and Other Substance Misuse grants being awarded throughout the nation.

Administrators of the program said that Helping Services is honored to be one of the recipients of the funding.

These funds allow Helping Services to expand mentoring services. Youth Mentoring will be serving youth ages 6-17 in Allamakee, Clayton, Howard, Southern Fayette, and Winneshiek Counties with community-based and school-based mentoring. Under this funding source Mentoring Coordinator, Colinne McCann will be serving Allamakee, Howard, and Winneshiek. Mentoring Coordinator, Sam Jennerjohn will be serving Southern Fayette while continuing to coordinate services in Delaware County. Helping Services will be hiring a full-time Mentoring Coordinator to serve Clayton County. Mentoring Coordinator, Kathy Schwartzhoff will continue to serve youth in Allamakee, Howard, and Winneshiek Counties under funding from an Iowa Health and Human Services grant.

In addition to expanding mentoring services, this grant will enhance Youth Mentoring by offering the Celebrating Families!™ program to mentees and their families. Celebrating Families!™ is an evidence-based curriculum that works with every member of the family from ages 3 through adult to foster the development of safe, healthy, fulfilled, and addiction-free individuals and families by increasing resiliency and decreasing risk factors while incorporating addiction recovery concepts with healthy family living skills.

The target youth population for this grant will be youth involved in the justice system, youth who have incarcerated parents, youth attending public school who meet specific criteria, and youth at a higher risk for substance misuse. The Mentoring Coordinators will work closely with Juvenile Court Officers, Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health, Steering Committee members, and other community partners to help guide the expansion of Youth Mentoring. The target mentor population for this grant will be any adult who has a passion for making a difference in the life of a youth. This funding will allow Helping Services to market services so the best adult role model can be found for each youth.

Youth Mentors are asked to spend four hours each month with the youth and commit to a minimum of one year. To learn more about how to become involved in Youth Mentoring, call 563-387-1720 or visit www.helpingservices.org/mentoring or contact mentoring@helpingservices.org.

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