Program Goals/Target Population
Arches Transformative Mentoring Program is a community-based mentoring program for youth on probation in New York City. The program is designed to reduce youth’s recidivism and juvenile justice-system involvement and strengthen communities by improving outcomes for youth through positive attitudinal and behavioral changes. Arches serves youth, ages 16 through 24, who are on probation across the five boroughs of New York City, with an emphasis on those who are at a high risk of reoffending.
Program Activities
Youth are referred to the program by their probation officers. Participants meet in open and ongoing groups, which are led by a mentor, for 1 hour, twice a week for 6 months (48 sessions in total). New participants can join existing groups at specific time points (e.g., first week of each month). Mentors facilitate group sessions using an interactive journaling (IJ) curriculum, which was developed using cognitive-behavioral therapy and positive youth development frameworks. The curriculum focuses on helping participants make positive changes to their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Journaling usually occurs once a week and emphasizes topics associated with anger management and communication skills. Participants are required to complete four journals throughout the course of the program. The IJ curriculum is also supplemented by motivational interviewing techniques such as open-ended questions, reflective listening, and affirmations.
Mentors are expected to build rapport with youth, encourage them to build a support system for each other, teach them how to interact with law enforcement, fill gaps in services to reduce recidivism, and serve as a bridge among participants, probation officers, and families. Mentors are expected to be available to youth at all times for support, advice, and guidance. Mentors receive mandatory trainings on group facilitation techniques during program orientation and ongoing technical assistance with the IJ curriculum and group facilitation.
Participants receive cash stipends of up to $800 for attending mentoring sessions, distributed through debit cards that are loaded on a biweekly basis. Participants also receive hot meals prior to each session and a MetroCard following each session.
Key Personnel
In addition to referring youth to the program, probation officers provide case management and coordinate referrals to different types of services. Program sites are staffed with three to four paid mentors. One serves as the full-time lead mentor and is responsible for managing mentorship at each site, and the others are part-time mentors. One full-time program coordinator organizes program activities, supervises mentors, and acts as a liaison with the Department of Probation.
Program Theory
The program’s IJ curriculum is rooted in cognitive theory, which posits that people’s automatic reactions influence their perceptions of situations more than the actual situations do (McGuire 1996). Cognitive-behavioral therapy addresses this through brief problem-oriented conversations with a therapist. In the Arches program, these conversations are led by mentors and driven by youth’s journaling assignments. Arches mentors are trained in motivation enhancement therapy techniques, which is a person-centered approach to shifting attitudes toward personal change, especially for youth who show little desire to change, despite understanding the impact of their negative behaviors (Miller et al. 1992). The Arches model also uses a positive youth development framework by focusing on youth’s positive traits and resilience rather than their problem behavior (Lerner et al. 2018).
