Gary Ivory, YAP Southwest President and National Director of Program Development participated in a panel about the juvenile justice and gang intervention. The panel, hosted and moderated by Congressman Bobby Scott, focused on the Youth PROMISE Act and cost-effective intervention and prevention efforts to improve the educational, social and life outcomes of youth in some of America's most distressed communities. The panel also discussed how to redirect focus away from ineffective "tough on crime" approaches and toward evidence-based, "smart on crime" approaches that work. Gary's presentation included an overview of YAP's individualized strength-based model and highlighted two of YAP's successful approaches: one targeting the highest risk youth and the other targeting the highest risk communities. Gary was joined on his panel by Judge Steven Teske (Clayton County, GA), Newport News VA Sheriff Gabe Morgan, Jennifer Bellamy, Legislative Council of the ACLU and Brian Bumbarger, Director of EPISCenter.

For more information, contact Shaena Fazal, sfazal@yapinc.org or (202)594-6893.