Organization Updates

Two of the organizations highlighted at the last Champaign County Community Coalition meeting were in the news recently. From a previous Cheat Sheet post on that meeting:

The Young Adult Reentry Program at the Regional Planning Commission presented and overview of their new program targeting 18-24 year olds reentering from the criminal justice system in high crime and high poverty areas of Champaign County including Champaign-Urbana, but several surrounding communities. A quick overview is available in a PDF brochure here as well as more information on the grant from the RPC website here.

The Youth Assessment Center through the RPC also gave an update about its new location and an overview of Moral Reconation Therapy which "rewires" the brain to take responsibility for ones actions and to make moral decisions instead of selfish ones. It's common enough that you'll see the MRT acronym thrown around in a lot of programs dealing with reentry and treatment needs in relation to recidivism.

The RPC's Young Adult Reentry Program was highlighted on WILL (with audio interview as well): Champaign County Program Aims To Cut Recidivism, Boost Employment For Young Adults

CU One to One Mentoring is looking for mentors to be matched with a large stack of available mentee applications. January is National Mentoring Month and there are upcoming training opporturnities for interested mentors at the end of this month and the beginning of February. There is an additional shortage of male mentors if you know anyone who might be great at it who could use the nudge. This program goes through the school system so the time commitment is during the week on school days and roughly an hour weekly.

The News-Gazette highlighted CU One to One Mentoring and its need for more mentors, especially male mentors: Schools seek more adults, especially men, for mentoring program. From that article:

That kind of dialogue and long-term relationship is something those involved with CU One-to-One Mentoring always want for more area students, but with only 37 percent of the program's current mentors being male, their need isn't just more — it's more men.

"The (ratio) has always been skewed that way," said community outreach coordinator Lauren Smith. "It is this way nationwide, it's not just our community. We're probably a little bit above average if anything."

Smith said she spoke recently with one of the program's male mentors, who'd tried to co-opt some of his friends into mentoring with him, perhaps using their lunch hour like he did.

"He said his friends told him they were all too busy," she said. "The guys who do do it, they'll say, 'Well, you eat lunch anyway, right?'"

Mentoring takes up to an hour per week during the school day, and mentor/mentee pairs spend that time on school grounds, either in a mentoring room or some other designated area on campus. Some spend that time talking. Others play games or do homework.

 Full article here.