Mentoring Incarcerated Youth
Give value and purpose to youth and you can change their direction...
A supportive, caring adult can change the life of at-risk youth. Match-Two serves the communities in California by connecting caring adults with incarcerated youth.
According to mentor experts, "Mentors promote positive outcomes when they serve as role models; provide emotional support and positive feedback; and become a steady, reliable, constructive presence in the lives of youth." (Jucovy, 2002)
Match-Two has 39 year experience mentoring inmates. With sustained financial support Match-Two can expand to juvnile facilities in all counties in California, and to adult prisons. The M2 model can be reproduced in other states in the USA. M2 Mentoring is a unique organization with the unprecedented and unparalleled ability to access the incarcerated to provide one-to-one mentoring sessions.
Executive Director of Match-Two, Elida Perez, says, "Give value and purpose to youth and you can change their direction."
Match-Two Mission
Match-Two Mentoring Outreach exists to recruit, train, match and monitor community volunteers for supportive one-to-one mentoring of the incarcerated who receive few or no visits and who request a mentor.
Jesus said, "I was in prison and you came to visit me." From: Matt. 25:36
Match-Two Vision
Match-Two’s vision is to see caring relationships and reentry services assist ex-offenders to become productive and responsible citizens that result in life-changing decisions, lower recidivism and safer communities.
Match-Two Mentoring ...
- Empowers mentees to choose a new lifestyle that does not include crime
- Enables mentees to apply critical thinking, make good choices and take responsibility for their decisions
- Equips mentees to become productive citizens
- Educates the community by stimulating changes in public attitudes toward incarceration vs. rehabilitation