Launched in March 2003, JIFF has now provided intervention services for more than 500 court-referred youth with a marked recidivism success rate under 35%.
There are two ways JIFF provides intervention services
Juvenile Case Mentoring
Learn to Earn — culinary training, career readiness and GED training
- Juvenile Case Mentoring: serves youth referrals from Juvenile Court’s Youth Service Bureau who have committed an offense serious enough to require intervention services of an agency or institution (600-1000 youth per year out of a total of approximately 12,000 delinquent cases); Males, ages 12-18.
- Learn to Earn: systematically addresses the high level of unemployed, unskilled, undereducated, out-of-school youth and young adults (male & female), ages 16-21, especially young offenders. JIFF offers two different modules for Learn to Earn participants:
Culinary Arts Training & Career Readiness module
GED & Career Readiness module
To increase the breadth and depth of intervention services, JIFF completed a 25,000 square foot renovation and building expansion project. The renovation project included the construction of a full commercial kitchen for the implementation of a culinary arts training program, and an educational advancement center for academic testing, tutorial support and GED tutoring and instruction. JIFF’s Educational Advancement Center is recognized and financially supplemented as a Title 1 D (delinquent) Day School through TN Department of Education, and is one of the only non-profit organizations in Memphis recognized by the Messick Center as an official GED Practice Test site.
