Beacon Schools of the Virgin Islands have been awarded a $197,304 federal grant to promote mentoring for its young clients.
The JUMP grant, as it is called, is from the U.S. Justice Department's office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
The grant will allow the islands' three Beacon Schools and the V.I. Education Department to provide mentors to at-risk black and Latino boys between 12 and 16 who attend public junior high schools.
They'll recruit mentors through a media campaign and by targeting law-enforcement agencies, human service agencies, businesses and colleges. The boys will be selected in collaboration with public school staffers.
The program will kick off with a "JUMP Training Academy," according to Valerie George, Beacon Schools executive director, and will feature monthly feedback sessions that will include the mentor, the youth and parents. Parents will be encouraged to take part in mentoring selection and planning sessions, George said.
George called the grant "good news."
V.I. Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen commended Beacon Schools and called for more of these types of programs to be developed.
"With the excessive acts of violence being committed by young men in this community, I applaud the efforts of the Beacon Schools to work with our youth in a proactive manner," she said. "I would like to encourage other agencies that work with juveniles to aggressively pursue grants and other sources of funding to implement programs for the youth of this territory."
