Partnership grant supports effort to aid at-risk youths
Boiling Springs, Pa. (Wednesday March 23, 2016)
Two Diakon Youth Services programs have received a $28,100 grant from The Partnership for Better Health to provide community-based case-management services and mentoring to at-risk youths.
The funds will support efforts by Diakon’s Flight and Bridge programs. The Flight Program offers guidance and mentoring for young men who have aged out of traditional county-funded youth services but need continuing support to remain successful in life. Bridge is a community-based, weekday support and intervention service that helps at-risk adolescents build a foundation of self-discipline and respect for family, teachers, the law, and self.
The grant, which covers March 1 through Feb. 28 of next year, supports case-management and mentoring services for 16 youths, ages 17 to 25, from the partnership’s footprint of Cumberland, Perry, Adams and Franklin counties. The grant’s emphasis is on youths transitioning out of traditional county-funded juvenile-justice or foster-care systems.
“We are grateful to the partnership for its funding to support Bridge and Flight,” says Jason Brode, regional director of Diakon Youth Services. “The grant represents a positive investment in the lives of regional youths and helps to support services that evidence shows are effective in turning around young lives.”
The Partnership for Better Health is a community foundation that works collaboratively with key stakeholders throughout parts of the four counties to influence the lives of area residents. The partnership provides funding for grants and initiatives that improve individual health and community health capacity through the use of evidence-based strategies and best practices.
The youth grant is supported by the partnership’s Healthy People Grant Program, which provides selective grants for urgent, critical health-care programs that fall outside the foundation’s two major goals of promoting healthy lifestyles and increasing access to affordable, quality health care. Last year, the partnership invested nearly $2 million in community grants and partnered with more than 30 community organizations.
Diakon Youth Services, whose Flight and Bridge programs are a past recipient or finalist for a regional award for innovative non-profit services, aids nearly 1,000 at-risk youths each year from various regions of Pennsylvania. As evidence of the programs’ success, the Flight Program typically has 100% of its participants enrolled in college or trade school or working full-time. Participants also take part in extensive community service activities.
For further information, please contact:
William Swanger, M.A., APR
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries
(717) 795-0308
E-mail: swangerb@diakon.org
