In September 2012, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the federal Office of Justice Programs awarded a $1,538,000 grant to the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) to support its “Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program,” or RAMP, in 10 sites across the U.S. The RAMP initiative is a career-focused mentoring program for youth involved with or at risk of becoming involved with the juvenile justice system.
The IEL’s goals for the RAMP initiative are to prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency and gang participation among at-risk youths, improve their academic performance and reduce dropout rates. To accomplish these goals, the IEL proposed to use the award to fund projects that were focused on decreasing truancy, reducing instances of arrest and incarceration, increasing social competencies and social support opportunities and guiding them through employment and post-secondary education processes. Over a three-year period, RAMP has helped more than 1,200 young people from all backgrounds stay in school, improve attendance and social skills and become part of a pipeline contributing to a highly skilled future workforce.
Identification begins with RAMP staff working with schools and juvenile justice agencies in local communities to identify students most “at-risk,” including students with disabilities, students involved in the juvenile justice system or foster care, tribal youth, and young people with emotional and mental health needs. Many youth involved with RAMP are from low-income, non-English-speaking families and are cared for in varied and often unstable family structures. Many struggle with low school performance and truancy. RAMP provides resources and support for youth with disabilities, including those with emotional and mental health needs, learning and cognitive disabilities, and physical impairments, as well as other youth at risk of not making a successful transition to adult life. Young people are referred to RAMP by community organizations, juvenile justice agencies, schools, and families.
Currently there are RAMP programs in Denver, Houston, Baltimore, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Lansing, Elmira NY, Lake City FL, Wayne County NY, Albany County NY and Windham County VT. The Elmira program has assisted families with children who have or are in need of behavioral, social, and chemical dependency interventions. It has also helped families participate in enhancement programs and services as an alternative to entering into family court or out-of-home placements. The Jacksonville program has worked specifically with a population of youth with autism-spectrum disorders served in special education classrooms. The program in Denver has worked closely with a program that educates students who have been expelled from school or are at-risk, and it also has recruited youth from an alternative high school that educates students who are incarcerated or awaiting trial.
The RAMP model uses a combination of group, peer, and individualized mentoring to promote the successful transition of all youth, including those with disabilities, to employment, continued learning opportunities and independent living. Youth participate in weekly career preparation-focused group meetings, including peer-supported goal setting and exploration of careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Each youth meets regularly one-on-one with a mentor to develop and implement an Individualized Mentoring Plan. Mentors are caring adults recruited from the community, schools, employers, and partner organizations. At the end of the program cycle, each group of youths works with an industry advisor to complete a high-tech project.
While in RAMP, youngsters have the opportunity to assess and explore their own career interests, develop a plan and set goals for their transition, create a resource map of their community’s high-tech industries, gain workplace skills, build resume-writing and interviewing skills, interact with employers and experience a variety of work settings, give and receive peer support, take advantage of group and personal leadership opportunities, design and build a high-tech-related team project and have fun.
An assessment of RAMP’s results from2009-2012:
a) 99 percent of students stayed in school—well above overall national dropout rates and far above those for the at-risk students RAMP typically serves; b) a 95 percent non-offense rate among RAMP participants; c) 90 percent completed the year-long RAMP program; d) 66 percent improved school attendance; e) 58 percent felt their social supports improved as a result of being involved in the program and f) 43 percent saw improvements in assessed social competencies.
But the impact of RAMP goes far beyond the numbers. In communities across the country, the following results have also been seen:
1) Young people involved in the juvenile justice system and those labeled
“at-risk” often see themselves as problems, but RAMP’s emphasis on careers helps shift young people’s self perceptions to their potential.
2) RAMP’s structured approach to self-assessment and goal-setting in a broad range of areas helps youth develop skills such as self-reliance, independence and the ability to set goals that yield solid outcomes in the transition to adult life.
3) The local organizations that operate RAMP in each community ensure that each site is grounded in the local job market and emphasize high-demand fields available close to home. Through mentoring, job-site visits and other career-focused experiences, employers are also exposed to RAMP students, which challenges—and changes—their previous perceptions of students with disabilities and those who have been involved with the juvenile justice system.
Involving family members is critical to begin services and has proven effective in supporting RAMP participants as they set and meet goals. Sites have introduced home visits and follow-up meetings and conversations to encourage family participation. To address the need for records and meeting space from schools, sites have also developed closer relationships with school districts and aligned activities to daily schedules and academic calendars.
RAMP partners curredntly include leading employers in the following fields:
retail management and food services, auto sales and repair, health and hospitality, aviation and aerospace, media and communications and public service.
