October 2008 

MENTORING AND SO MUCH MORE: PARTNERS PROGRAM PROVES TO BE EFFECTIVE MODEL

by Joe Higgins, Director, Mesa Co. Partners

After its creation in the late 1960’s the Partners Mentoring Program caught a lot of attention as an effective mentoring program, especially with its emphasis on juveniles referred by the Denver Juvenile Court. Partners developed a working relationship with the Big Brothers Program to assure that they were not duplicating efforts. The Partners Program focused on youth that were involved with the courts, law enforcement or child welfare system. Big Brothers concentrated their efforts more on youth who did not have a father or male role model in the household due to death or divorce.

In the 1970’s the Partners Program in Denver expanded its spectrum of services to include challenging outdoor activities such as river rafting, NYPUM-Honda’s National Youth Program Using Motorcycles; an Alternative High School and a Restitution Work Program to put juveniles to work to repay their victims.

In the 1970’s there was very little in the way of social research on what worked and what did not work in the field of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.  The Partners Program quickly opened itself up to researchers from Colorado University. The Research from 1972-1980 assessed the effectiveness of Partners in Denver in facilitating positive changes in the young people referred by the courts, law enforcement and social service agencies. The following is a summary of some of the findings:

·         Recidivism study of juvenile offenders showed that 31% of juvenile offenders with mentors (senior partners) were re-arrested compared to 53% of the juveniles without mentors.

·         Self-reported delinquency studies showed that juveniles with mentors showed a significant reduction in major theft compared with an increase for youth in the control group.

·         Self-reported delinquency studies showed that the major factors affecting positive changes in reduced re-arrests included the Junior Partner’s perception of how much the Mentor respected and liked them and the Junior Partner’s perception of how much the Mentor would tick by them in times of trouble.

·         For partnerships that were considered to be successful, the volunteer displayed several characteristics: 1. A Close Relationship between the adult and child; 2. Volunteer respected the child-did not always condone their behavior but stuck by them in hard times as well as good times; 3. Volunteers was willing to self-disclose and discuss topics freely; 4. Volunteer had low –ego-power needs and 5. Volunteer had realistic expectations for change in the junior partner.

Based the positive research outcomes in the 1970’s, other communities in Colorado and other states became interested in starting Partners Programs as branches of the original Partners Program in Denver. The Mesa County Partners Program was one of the first new branches to be created in 1977. Other locations included Weld & Larimer Counties in Colorado, San Mateo and San Francisco, California and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Future newsletters will describe more about the Partners story in Colorado and specifically in Mesa County: Mentoring and So Much More.

September 2008

MENTORING AND SO MUCH MORE: PARTNERS PROGRAM CELEBRATES

40th ANNIVERSARY IN COLORADO 

by Joe Higgins, Director, Mesa Co. Partners

The Partners Program originally started in 1968 in Denver as a mentoring program working with youth involved with the Denver Juvenile Court. Over the next four months, I hope to provide newsletter articles that tell the history of Partners, how local programs have evolved such as Mesa Co. Partners and the impact of Partners and its spectrum of services based on research.

It all began 40 years ago (1968) in Denver during a time of racial tensions, forced busing and desegregation. Juvenile crime was growing dramatically in Denver. A Colorado business man, Bill Mitchell and a young seminarian, Bob Moffit, brought together a group of volunteers to provide at risk youth with a stable adult in their life. It was a pilot project of Young Life, a non-denominational Christian organization, that paired with the Denver Juvenile Court under the leadership of Judge Phillip Gilliam to provide mentors who were required to attend training, undergo a back ground check and application process and provide at least 3 hours a week for a minimum of a one year commitment—basically the same model followed 40 years later.

On June 21, 2008 the Metro Denver Partners Program hosted a celebration noting that over 15,500 youth have benefitted from Mentoring Services by the local Partners Programs throughout Colorado, that all started from the original program in Denver in 1968. Mesa Co. Partners was created in August 1977. The 40th anniversary celebration was blessed with the attendance of the first partnership of Bob Moffit and John Cordova. Bob Moffit shared the following thoughts: “I believe that we were created to write our signature on the universe…and we do that by being significant….The name of “Partners came from what Johnny & I called each other. Little did we dream in those late years of the 1960’s that our experience would be the foundation and inspiration for thousands of similar relationships.

Major Highlights of 2007

One to One Mentoring

·          62 new partnerships matched this year.

·          A total of 132 partnerships were active in 2007.

·          Senior Partner volunteers devoted over 20,000 hours in direct mentoring and tutoring services to youth.

·          The Partners Mentoring Effectiveness Index evaluation tool showed statistically significant improvements in the following scales: 1. Self Esteem, 2. Attitudes Against Interpersonal Violence, 3. Future Orientation, 4. Self-reported Delinquency and 5. Intent to use Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs.

Restitution & Community Service Work Program

·          The District Attorney’s Office, Probation Dept., Division of Youth Corrections and the Municipal, County and District Courts referred 1,133 juvenile offenders—45% increase over 2006.

·          $78,220 of restitution was paid to local victims.

·          The juveniles performed 24,082 hours of community service work.

·          87% of the juvenile offenders successfully completed their court orders.

·          210 juveniles attended life skills and substance abuse prevention classes (“minor in possession”).

·          207 juvenile offenders participated in Victim Empathy Classes to help them to understand the negative impact of their crimes on the victims, their family members and the community as a whole.

·          20 Victim/Offender Mediations were performed involving first time offenders referred by law enforcement.

Minority Family Advocacy Project

·          60 minority juvenile offenders and their families received advocacy, language interpretation, and mentoring and referral services.

·          12 parolees form Division of Youth Corrections matched with mentors.

·          Collaborative effort with Hilltop and School District 51 to reduce expulsions & school dropouts, especially among minority females  served 16 youth (Las Chicas Support Group).

Western Colorado Conservation Corps of Partners

·          The Conservation Corps trained and employed 120 young adults who completed over 36,000 hours of fieldwork and 3,000 hours of environmental, life skills and remedial education training.

·          WCCC is a certified member of the Colorado Youth Corps Association and collaborates with Mesa Co. Workforce Center.

·          30 youth earned AmeriCorps Education Awards exceeding $35, 000 for college tuition.

Mesa Youth Services Foundation

·          Mesa Youth Services Foundation is the endowment for the future of the Partners Program.  The principal of the Foundation cannot be used, only investment income. Assets of the Foundation are $620,000. Donations can be made to the Foundation at

Build A Generation/Drug Free Community Support Program  Partners is the prime sponsor for this collaborative effort to promote substance abuse prevention. Major activities include the Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force, Social Norming Public Awareness Campaign and Mesa Co. Meth Task Force and the Colorado Prevention Partners.

CLUB MID After School Program

The After School Program in cooperation with School District 51 & Mesa Co. Dept. of Human Services provides supervision, safe environment and tutoring for 140 latch key youth from low income households at 5 Middle Schools.

Other Highlights

·          Thanks to local businesses and individuals over 300 youth received Christmas gifts and back to school supplies, especially Mervyns & Cummins Rocky Mountain.

·          Sylvan Learning Center/Partners Scholarship.   5 junior partners received special scholarships for academic assistance from Sylvan Learning Center.

·          Minority Family Advocacy Program was identified by the US Dept. of Justice as an elite model  program to reduce the disproportionate contact of minority youth with the criminal justice system.

Challenges and Goals for the future

·          85 children are on the waiting list for mentors.

“For every dollar spent on One-to-One Mentoring Services, the community sees a $2.72 return in benefit to the community in juvenile crime reduction; truancy reduction, substance abuse reduction and improved educational performance.” From “Social Return on Investment in Youth Mentoring Programs” University of Minnesota, 2007.