Philadelphia – Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc., will celebrate five decades of serving as the nation’s premier nonprofit provider of community-based alternatives to youth incarceration and residential care with its YAP® Making Change Happen Summit and YAP® Making Change Happen Awards Gala on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. The event brings together youth justice, child welfare, mental health, and public safety practitioners, researchers, and former YAP® program participants. It also honors YAP® pioneers and other American changemakers, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott, whose work has led to stronger outcomes with safer and less costly justice, family, and public safety services.
Now in 32 states and Washington, DC, YAP® partners with local youth justice, child welfare and other systems to deliver community-based rehabilitative, restorative, mental health, and other individual and family-centered “wraparound” services as an alternative to sending youth in trouble or in crisis to out-of-home facilities. Tom Jeffers founded YAP® in 1975 in Harrisburg (serving Philadelphia since 1978) as a community-based youth justice alternative when Pennsylvania ordered the release of children detained at Camp Hill adult prison.
Hosted by Philadelphia hip-hop radio legend and former YAP® Advocate Colby Tyner, the 50thAnniversary YAP® Making Change Happen Summit features Emmy-nominated actor Richard Cabral as keynote lunch speaker. Cabral, a former gang member rehabilitated through Homeboy Industries, will be introduced by Natassia and Jesse, two former justice-involved YAP® program participants.
Using principles of its unique YAPWrap® family-centered model, the nonprofit’s neighborhood-based Advocates, mental health professionals, and other staff empower youth to see and nurture their strengths. YAP® connects program participants and their parents, guardians, and other loved ones with economic, educational, and emotional needs tools that firm their family foundation.
YAP® now also contracts with community and school public safety systems, applying principles of its unconditional caring, “no-reject, no-eject” evidence-based model to reduce violence by serving individuals identified as being at the greatest risk.
The 50th Anniversary YAP® Making Change Happen Summit features experts, researchers, policy leaders, and youth justice, child welfare, and mental health systems-involved young people and families sharing their insights on innovations in child welfare, justice reform, mental health, policy,and economic and educational success. A few of the former YAP® participants serving as panelistsare:
- YAP® Board Member and former Philadelphia program participant Ellana Watson, who as a youth, received services from YAP® after an assault charge;
- Jesse (who will also introduce Cabral at the luncheon), received services from YAP® in Chicago after spending time in a youth justice facility for an armed robbery conviction. With support from YAP®, he recently completed truck driving school, landed a job, and has a better relationship with his family.
- Former New Jersey YAP® participant Saran and Source of Knowledge Bookstore co-owner MasaniBarnwell will share how YAP® Supported Work was key to empowering positive change for Saran at school and home.
- Former Michigan child welfare-system involved youth Michael and his parents will share how YAP® helped keep Michael out of residential care by connecting him with individualized support.
Of note, for photographers/videographers looking for action visuals, former Philadelphia YAP® youth justice program participant Nasir is a member of the photography company that will be working during the event.
The Philadelphia 50th anniversary events will culminate with the YAP® Making Change Happen Awards Gala with special guest Judge Glenda Hatchett, star of two-time Emmy-nominated "Judge Hatchett” and “The Verdict with Judge Hatchett,” and a former Chief Judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court in Georgia.
Honorees include:
- Roseanna Ander, University of Chicago Crime Lab and University of Chicago Education Lab’s Founding Executive Director
- Shay Bilchik, Affiliate Researcher and Founder and Director Emeritus, Center for Youth Justice at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy
- John Kelly, Co-Executive Director of Fostering Media Connections/Senior Editor of The Imprint
- Sam Lewis, Justice Program Director, Los Angeles County Justice Care and Opportunities Department; Founder, Endless Hope and Redemption, LLC; Former Anti-Recidivism Coalition Executive Director
- Heidi Mueller, Director, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
- Bill Ryan, Criminal Justice Reform Pioneer
- Liz Ryan, Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University/Former Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator
- Vincent Schiraldi, Visiting Fellow, The Pinkerton Foundation/ Formerly served as New York City Probation and Correction Commissioner and oversaw youth justice for the State of Maryland and Washington, D.C.
- Brandon M. Scott, 52nd Mayor of Baltimore, Spearheading Historic Reductions in Violence
What: YAP® Making Change Happen Summit and Awards Gala
Time: 8:30 Opening Plenary Breakfast
9:45-10:45 a.m. and 11:15-12:15 p.m. Panel Discussions
12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m. Lunch Plenary featuring Richard Cabral
6:00 p.m. Awards Gala Reception
6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. Awards Gala
9 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Dessert Reception
Date: Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025
Place: Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, 201 North 17th St.
Click here to see the full itinerary for the Summit and here for the Gala.
The nonprofit’s 50th Anniversary YAP® Making Change Happen sponsors include Alera Group, Baker Tilly, Fulton Bank, GM Financial and McConkey Insurance and Benefits.
About YAP®
YAP® partners with youth justice, child welfare, education, developmental disabilities, behavioral health, and other youth and family services systems in communities in 32 states and Washington D.C. YAP®’s decades of service include working with many young people whose histories include serious offenses, multiple arrests, and lengthy out-of-home placements. John Jay College of Criminal Justice research found 86 % of YAP’®s youth justice participants remain arrest-free, and six – 12 months after completing the program nearly 90% of youth served still lived in their communities with less than 5% of participants in secure placement. Across the U.S., YAP® is also working with public safety systems, applying principles of its unique “no reject, no eject” YAPWrap® individual and family services model to reduce neighborhood violence.
Learn more about YAP® and its 50th anniversary events at www.YAPInc.org.