Young Men’s Christian Association of San Francisco

Overview

Since 2009 the YMCA of San Francisco has delivered evidenced based mentoring services to thousands of youth and their parents across the nation. The Reach & Rise model incorporates quality mentoring practices by enhancing each benchmark of the Elements of Effective Practices with a therapeutic approach. This approach integrates cognitive behavioral mentoring strategies (CBM) that helps youth positively engage in society while reducing rates of truancy, substance use, and unmet mental health challenges that often results in juvenile justice system engagement. Reach & Rise trains adult volunteers to be mentors and utilizes a curriculum that draws on core principles of family, child, and adolescent therapy.

The Reach & Rise program is a one-to-one therapeutic mentoring model with family support.

Target Population

Reach & Rise targets youth ages 6 to 17 who have experienced trauma and are demonstrating behaviors that put them at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. These youth live and go to school in low-income communities, struggle with issues of sexual identity, substance abuse or depression, may be experiencing violence in their home or in their community or may be disengaged in school. Reach & Rise Site Coordinators will recruit specific high-priority populations including youth affected by drug addiction, youth of military families, and youth of incarcerated parents.