What We Do
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People do better throughout their lives when they are empowered to access support and opportunities in their communities to strengthen their social, emotional, financial and physical wellbeing. YAP® engages in activities designed to create positive environments for program participants so that they can thrive as healthy, well-rounded and fully engaged members of their communities.

Detention, youth prison, and placements in residential care facilities separate youth from family and community. YAP®’s community-based alternatives help program participants and their families achieve life skills and other goals in safe, supportive environments.

YAP® carries out our mission not only through direct services, but also in  policy change efforts, training and consultation, and investing in communities.

 
  • Direct Services
    Advocates in the Neighborhood
  • Policy and Advocacy Change
    Changing Hearts, Minds and Systems
  • Training and Consultation
    International and Domestic
  • Invest in Futures
    Endowment Fund for Continuing Education

Direct Services

YAP®’s continuum of care safely supports wellbeing and empowers individuals to see and nurture their strengths through services delivered in their homes and communities. Our individualized services include connecting youth and families with tools to help them heal from exposure to violence and other negative experiences, access basic needs supports and services, form healthy and stable relationships, meet their individualized educational, employment and emotional goals, build positive and lasting community connections, and develop essential life skills.

YAP® specializes in supporting individuals and families involved in the youth justice and child welfare systems; youth and young adults with behavioral health needs, young people with intellectual disabilities and/or struggling with educational challenges; and adults returning from prison.

 
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Policy and Advocacy Change

YAP® works to change human service systems, advocating for public policies that support divesting in often harmful and expensive institutions and investing in a robust, more effective, comprehensive, community-based continuum of care. Informed by the experiences of YAP® program participants and direct service staff, we advocate for changing policies and systems that affect those we serve and their communities, and we collaborate with like-minded organizations to maximize our collective impact.

 
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Training and Consultation

Since 1991, YAP® has helped change the hearts and minds of jurisdictions, schools, other youth and family serving organizations, and the broader public through providing training, consultation, technical assistance and education. This work is available in communities throughout the United States and internationally.

 
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Investing in Communities

One of the tools available to YAP® program participants and members of their families is our Endowment Fund scholarship. In 2014, we named the fund the Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education in honor of YAP®'s founder. Whether the goal is college, a technical certification or other career endeavors, the scholarship is available to support recipients’ specific educational and economic pursuits. In addition to tuition, awardees can use the funds to pay for books, vocational tools or a computer. Since the scholarship’s inception in 2004, YAP® employees have been the primary funders, making donations through weekly payroll deductions totaling more than $2 million.

 
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