GJF'S Soul Survivor Mentoring Program
What we offer:
· Caring environment
· Life Lessons
· Mentors
· Tutors
· Accountability
· Educational Resources
· Group Talks
· Lessons in Etiquette
· Teaching Self Esteem, Better awareness, Decision making, Confidence
· A Get-Away for the teen
· Field Trips
At-risk students and their mentors participate in a seven to twelve month structured program that includes monthly team-building and group activities. The program ends with a graduation but the mentor and youth remain together for the following five month or as long as the teen doesn't exceed our age limit. The goal of the program is to rekindle the youth's commitment to learning and being successful in the classroom. By empowering young people to finish school, mentors are improving the student's success in the work world as adults.
Ongoing training will continue with mentors on an annual basis and throughout the year for certain positions. In addition, Soul Survivor will have monthly mentor support meetings where all mentors will meet up and talk about anything needing to be discussed keeping everyone on the same page and making sure we keep to our standards and ethics when dealing with students.
Soul Survivor is a program that is in direct response to the growing number of young people that is either falling through the cracks at home, school or are already entangled with the juvenile court system. Soul Survivor offers at-risk youth the opportunity to make a dramatic change in their lives. The programs are positioned to be most assessable to young people who want to do better and the individuals that would drop out of school or swept into the juvenile court system or frequent school detention.
STATISTICS
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 73.6 million children in the United States in 2014, which was 1.2 million more than in 2000. This number is projected to increase to 76.3 million in 2030. In 2014 (the latest year of data available at the time of publication), there were fewer children in the 0–5 age group (23.9 million) than in the 6–11 age group (24.7 million) and the 12–17 age group (25.0 million)
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While neglect is the most common type of maltreatment across all age groups, types of maltreatment vary by age. In 2013, 82 percent of substantiated child maltreatment reports for children ages 0–3 involved neglect, compared with 64 percent for adolescents ages 16–17. Twenty-one percent of substantiated reports for adolescents ages 16–17 involved physical abuse and 18 percent involved sexual abuse. Among substantiated reports for children ages 0–3, 15 percent involved physical abuse and 1 percent involved sexual abuse.
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In 2013, Black, non-Hispanic children ages 0–17 had the highest rates of substantiated child maltreatment reports (16 reports per 1,000 children), followed by American Indian or Alaska Native children (14 per 1,000), children of two or more races (12 per 1,000), Hispanic children (9 per 1,000), White, non-Hispanic children (9 per 1,000), Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander children (8 per 1,000), and Asian children (2 per 1,000
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In 2013, 92 percent of young adults ages 18–24 had completed high school with a diploma or an alternative credential such as a General Educational Development (GED) certificate. The high school completion rate has increased since 1980, when it was 84 percent.
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The high school completion rate for Black, non-Hispanic young adults increased from 75 percent in 1980 to 92 percent in 2013. Among White, non-Hispanic young adults, the high school completion rate increased from 87 percent in 1980 to 94 percent in 2013. While Hispanic young adults have had a consistently lower high school completion rate than their White, non-Hispanic and Black, non-Hispanic peers, the rate for Hispanic young adults increased from 57 percent in 1980 to 85 percent in 2013.