Guides for the Journey: Supporting High-Risk Youth with Paid Mentors and Counselors

Strategies to concentrate resources on high-risk youth have long been a goal in the youth field, but the practical means of doing so frequently have eluded practitioners. High-risk youth often are highly transient, and they may need sustained, costly services to address their needs effectively. Guides for the Journey explores a concrete, flexible approach to the problem: the use of paid counselors who stay with young people for extended periods of time. The report profiles three programs now using this strategy and discusses how public funding to support wider use of paid mentors and counselors may be mobilized.