New Financing Tool for Social Programs Opens Doors for Juvenile Justice

This story originally appeared on Reclaiming Futures. Identifying the best programs for solving serious social problems is challenging for governments in the best of times, and all the more so in a constrained fiscal environment where every dollar must count. This is particularly true in areas like juvenile justice where the most effective interventions may involve combining approaches that governments currently support through separate funding streams—and where politicians’ personal views may steer disproportionate amounts of funds to programs that sound good on paper but don’t deliver results. But an innovative new financing tool called Social Impact Bonds may help solve some of these challenges. Social Impact Bonds, or SIBs, take traditional government funding structures and turn them on their head.

Grant To Mentor Child Sexual Exploitation

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention offers a grant for the 2011 Mentoring for Child Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation Initiative. This grant seeks to increase efforts to mentor kids who’ve been sexually exploited and to increase outreach to victims and provide services to them. The winner of the grant will be expected to develop strategies to recruit, train, support and maintain mentors to support and empower the victims. Deadline: June 6, 2011 11:59

JJIE has written extensively on this subject: Justice Department Sheds Light on Human Trafficking Stats, Upcoming Conferences to Highlight Juvenile Justice, Crimes Against Children, Woman Volunteers Target Online Ads Selling Sex with Children,Law Professor Argues Against Prosecuting Minors for Prostitution