34 U.S.C. § 11111: Establishment

There is hereby established an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (hereinafter in this division 1 referred to as the “Office”) within the Department of Justice under the general authority of the Attorney General. 1 See References in Text note below. The Office shall be headed by an Administrator (hereinafter in this subchapter referred to as the “Administrator”) appointed by the President from among individuals who have had experience in juvenile justice programs. The Administrator is authorized to prescribe regulations consistent with this chapter to award, administer, modify, extend, terminate, monitor, evaluate, reject, or deny all grants and contracts from, and applications for, funds made available under this subchapter. The Administrator shall have the same reporting relationship with the Attorney General as the directors of other offices and bureaus within the Office of Justice Programs have. There shall be in the Office a Deputy Administrator who shall be appointed by the Attorney General. The Deputy Administrator shall perform such functions as the Administrator may from time to time assign or delegate and shall act as the Administrator during the absence or disability of the Administrator. “This subtitle may be cited as the ‘Mentoring Matches for Youth Act of 2006’. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which was founded in 1904 and chartered by Congress in 1958, is the oldest and largest mentoring organization in the United States. There are over 450 Big Brothers Big Sisters of America local agencies providing mentoring programs for at-risk children in over 5,000 communities throughout every State, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Over the last decade, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has raised a minimum of 75 percent of its annual operating budget from private sources and is continually working to grow private sources of funding to maintain this ratio of private to Federal funds. In 2005, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America provided mentors for over 235,000 children. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has a goal to provide mentors for 1,000,000 children per year. “In each of fiscal years 2007 through 2012, the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (hereafter in this Act referred to as the ‘Administrator’) may make grants to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to use for expanding the capacity of and carrying out the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring programs for at-risk youth. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America shall submit 2 reports to the Administrator in each of fiscal years 2007 through 2013. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America shall submit the first report in a fiscal year not later than April 1 of that fiscal year and the second report in a fiscal year not later than September 30 of that fiscal year. A detailed statement of the progress made by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in expanding the capacity of and carrying out mentoring programs for at-risk youth. A detailed statement of how the amounts received under this Act have been used. A detailed assessment of the effectiveness of the mentoring programs. Recommendations for continued grants and the appropriate amounts for such grants. $9,000,000 for fiscal year 2007; $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; $11,500,000 for fiscal year 2009; $13,000,000 for fiscal year 2010; and $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2011.”