Mayor Emanuel launches mentoring initiative to help high risk youth

MAYOR EMANUEL ANNOUNCES MENTORING INITIATIVE TO SERVE AN ADDITIONAL 2,000 YOUTH IN HIGHEST RISK COMMUNITIES THIS FALL

Latest expansions brings the City more than 90 percent towards its goal of reaching approximately 7,200 youths by 2018

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced another step toward achieving his three-year goal of delivering universal mentoring by 2018. An additional 2,000 youth will be served this fall thanks to private funding and ongoing public support of the Youth Guidance program.

“Every investment that we make in quality mentoring is a down payment on the future of our youth and the future of this City,” said Mayor Emanuel. “Now more than ever we need to continue working together to ensure our youth have the tools they need to stay on track and be successful in life.”

The funding for Youth Guidance was provided in part by Exelon, Get In Chicago, People’s Gas, and Uber, and will allow the organization to increase its acclaimed Becoming a Man (BAM) program into 16 new Chicago Public Schools. More than half of the youth will be served through the Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative, which focuses on reaching 8th, 9th and 10th graders from 22 of the City’s highest poverty and highest violence neighborhoods.

This is Lincoln Park High School (Chicago, IL,... — This is Lincoln Park High School (Chicago, IL, USA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This latest expansions bring the City more than 90 percent towards its goal of reaching approximately 7,200 youths by 2018.

In early 2017, the City awarded 56 longtime delegate partners and community-based organizations with contracts to increase mentoring to over 4,500 young men.

The Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative is a core component of the City’s public safety strategy. It lays out a clear path to provide the most at-risk youth with the support they need to remain on-track to graduate high school and avoid involvement in the criminal justice system.

Research by the University of Chicago Crime Lab suggests mentorship has been proven to be an effective strategy for increasing high school graduation rates and reducing violence. The Crime Lab found that BAM reduces violent crime arrests among participants by 45-50 percent, and increases on-time high school graduation rates by 19 percent.

New participating schools include: Beasley Elementary, Camelot – Excel Englewood High School, Carson Elementary, Gage Park High School, Gary Elementary, Hernandez Elementary, Kanoon Elementary, Madero Elementary, Nightingale Elementary, Saucedo Elementary, Sawyer Elementary, Seward, Westinghouse High School, Whitney Elementary School, York, Zapata Elementary.

Since 2011, the Emanuel administration has increased the investment to over 10 times the original amount to expand the BAM mentoring program to more than 6,000 students in 90 schools throughout Chicago this year.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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