Founded in 1975, YAP is a nonpartisan national nonprofit organization. Our employees in urban, rural, and suburban communities in 35 states and the District of Columbia fully represent America politically and demographically.

YAP is not a social justice organization, but rather, a change leader that for a half century in partnership with youth justice, child welfare, behavioral health, education, and other public systems, delivers community-based youth and family rehabilitative and behavioral health wraparound services that have been proven to reduce recidivism while keeping youth, families and communities safe and saving taxpayer dollars.

YAP’s unique wraparound services model, which guides all our work, reduces crime and recidivism by addressing society’s most complex challenges. Our neighborhood-based staff work directly and individually with youth and families, firming their foundation by connecting them with tools that address their individualized economic, educational, and emotional challenges -- with practices that incorporate accountability, restorative justice, respect for victims’ rights, and giving back to their communities -- so that our program participants are successful once our services end..

YAP’s government funded contracts, which support our work with children and families, require written plans on how we meet requirements for Equal Opportunity Employment Certification. In our five decades of delivering services, we have served program participants of all backgrounds from urban, suburban, and rural communities. With our no reject, no eject policy, we accept all referrals. With most of our participants living in poverty and given the disproportionate numbers of youth of color we serve (nearly 70% of our referrals), we are in a unique position to give our youth justice, child welfare, education, behavioral health and other systems partners an opportunity to have great outcomes for all youth and families, despite their background, and thus, we're a change leader.