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Who We Are

High-impact social justice nonprofit that provides community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, congregate placements and neighborhood violence.

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What We Do

We promote divesting in facilities and investing in communities to create continuums of care capable of providing exactly what each person needs.

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Our Services

YAP provides young people, adults, and their families with intensive support right from where they live, learn, work and play through our YAPWrap model.

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Our Impact

Our growing research base confirms that YAP is making a positive difference in the lives of young people, families and within the systems that support them.

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Changing Lives

 

Our Footprint

100% of our programming occurs in the home communities of the people we serve.

 
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The Neighborhood Advocate

YAP's blog features stories about families, advocates and program practitioners on the front lines of the youth justice, child welfare and social services systems reform movement.

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YAP Pressroom

Visit our Pressroom to find newsletters, press releases, videos and more.

Press Release 06/09/21

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Press Highlights

 
 
 

YAP Film: Safely Home

 
 

"Safely Home" showcases the power of the YAP model across diverse geographies and demographics by sharing the stories of youth and staff from three different YAP locations:

  • Urban Chicago, where we helped Angel and Adrian, cousins identified in a regression analysis as two of the 250 youth most likely to shoot or be shot
  • Orange County, NY, where we helped Shelby, a cross-system youth with an extensive placement history, safely reintegrate into her community and realize her dreams of college education
  • Rural Louisiana, where Advocate June Washington tirelessly nurtures resilience in youth and families of color that face the challenges of extreme poverty and limited resources
 
 
 

What They're Saying

Youth Advocate Programs are the county's greatest and best asset to redirect and change the lives of juveniles and their families

District Judge Marshall County, AL

When I was in a facility, YAP was there to help me get out and go home.

YAP Participant

You can’t leave a family or walk away and not have been changed... Change does happen and it happens with the kids most people do not want to work with. Those are our kids.

April Curtis YAP Director, Chicago IL

YAP’s approach is family focused. We not only work with the young person, but with their entire family. The family is going to be there long after we’re gone, so it’s essential that we work with the family from the onset.

Jeff Fleischer YAP CEO

I was… in foster homes. I was locked up for 18 months. It wasn’t very good… Because of YAP, my goals have become more obtainable. I always wanted to go to college and now I’m finally doing it.

Shelby YAP Participant

I think what makes YAP so effective is their wraparound approach. They support kids on all these different levels at once, their neighborhoods, their schools, their families.

Paul Tough Author, "How Children Succeed"