About the Center for the Advancement of Mentoring

The Center for the Advancement of Mentoring (TCAM) provides training and technical assistance to the national and local mentoring program grantees of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) of the U.S. Department of Justice. These mentoring programs serve youth who are in foster care, at risk of becoming involved in gangs, are former juvenile offenders, or would otherwise benefit from a mentor. Through targeted training and technical assistance, TCAM works with grantees to enhance the capacity of their mentoring programs and staff. TCAM’s primary objective is to enhance the capacity of OJJDP-funded mentoring programs to:

• integrate evidence-based and best practices;
• develop or expand community collaborations/partnerships;
• create mentor recruitment and retention strategies that focus on hard-to-reach populations;
• ensure financial and institutional sustainability; and,
• foster national, state, and local alliances to support mentoring programs

TCAM is a project of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), in collaboration with Dare Mighty Things, Inc. (DMT). Dr. Roger Jarjoura of Indiana University and founder of Aftercare for the Incarcerated Through Mentoring; Janet Forbush, an independent evaluator for mentoring initiatives and youth service programs; and Dennis Talbert, President of Empower Outreach, a faith-based mentoring program for high-risk youth. TCAM is funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).