The Completion Ceremony takes place at Health People at 552 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx from 5 to 7 pm. Funded through the Mayor’s Fund for the Advancement of New York City under the New York City Department of probation, Arches offers a six month intensive program of self-examination, where young men complete a series of workbooks under the guidance of adult mentors who, themselves, have overcome past imprisonment to rebuild their lives.

This powerful combination of paced self-examination with mentoring from men who really understand the problems the program participant’s grapple with has been shown to significantly decrease the prospects that they will not be involved in future crimes.

Health People, an innovative South Bronx peer education and mentoring program was chosen in the first round of funding to start its Arches initiative. Having already extensively trained adult peer educators from the South Bronx, Health People was able to rapidly recruit and train outstanding mentors who could meet the expectations for Arches.

Andre Jones, 25, says that for him, a key reason Arches works is “the mentors are just like me. Their story is my story. I learned from them where to start taking responsibility for your mistakes.” Andre is an honoree at the Completion Ceremony.

For Robert Edwards, 25, also an honoree at the Completion Ceremony, the Arches program “brought me a long way. The mentors are friendly and helpful. I used to have a bad attitude and not like to talk to people but that changed for me.”

The people at Arches relate to you and your stories, adds Ashad Washington, 18, another honoree. “That helps keep you out of trouble.” For the mentors, too, Arches fulfills a deep desire to “give back” to the community.