Describes the potential of faith-based organizations to deliver effective social programming for high-risk youth residing in some of the nation’s most distressed communities. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and a number of philanthropies, the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth set out to produce credible evidence of the capacity, limits, and practices of these organizations in helping youth to avoid initial or subsequent involvement in crime. The 15 Initiative sites represent low-income communities in major metropolitan areas across the United States. The first phase of implementation revealed that: (1) the faith community was successful in both securing the cooperation of the juvenile justice community and attracting high-risk youth; and (2) while small- and medium-sized organizations have the capacity to form effective partnerships with the justice community and recruit high-risk youth, they nevertheless need both financial and programmatic support to implement programs that are of sufficient intensity and duration to have an impact on participant behavior. Results from the Initiative to date confirm that faith-based organizations are an underutilized resource, but that small- and medium-sized organizations require significant external support, especially in delivering specific programs in education and employment and establishing an infrastructure for mentoring programs.
