NIJ Evaluation: Group Mentoring

The National Institute of Justice has released a report on the effectiveness on Project Arrive, an intervention that focuses on youth who are at risk of dropping out of school. This intervention uses group mentoring as a model, which consists of a group of six to eight students meeting with two volunteer co-mentors.

The NIJ used two separate studies that looked at whether or not the intervention had an effect on youth. For the most part, these studies found that Project Arrive has no significant effect on the following aspects: juvenile offenses, home support, self-awareness, instructional time, and GPA.

To read the full profile of the Project Arrive program, you can visit the NIJ’s website here.

NIJ Evaluation: Expressive Writing

The National Institute of Justice has released an evaluation focusing on programs using expressive writing as a means of intervention. This intervention is also known as written emotional disclosure, and it is designed to help youth express themselves emotionally and process their emotions to adapt to stressful situations. The target population of this intervention was youth aged 10 to 18.

Youth are encouraged to write about a particular topic during sessions taking about 15 to 20 minutes. They are told to write about a particular topic, including a stressful or challenging event in their life, an ongoing issue in their lives, their relationships with family and/or friends, and so on. All writing is kept confidential, and youth are reassured that they do not need to worry about spelling or grammar.

The NIJ’s evaluation found evidence suggesting that expressive writing is effective with regards to multiple juvenile problem/at-risk behaviors, internalizing behavior, school participation, and somatic complaints.

To read more about expressive writing, please visit the NIJ’s website after this link.