The national nonprofit, headquartered in Harrisburg, provides community-based alternatives to youth incarceration and residential care.
On Saturday, national nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) Inc. celebrated 50 years of service at its headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
YAP provides community-based alternatives to youth incarceration and residential care.
The “50th Anniversary YAP Making Change Happen 5k” was held in Harrisburg to celebrate the nonprofit’s anniversary, as well as a Kids Fun Run.
The YAP Making Change Happen Food Truck Brunch held on Saturday included educational sessions on the nonprofit’s history and work across the country, as well as family activities and food truck vendors.
Through its nonprofit work, YAP partners with public systems to provide community-based rehabilitative, restorative, behavioral health, and intellectual and developmental disabilities services. The services create alternatives to placing young people in group care and correctional facilities.
Youth Advocate Programs was founded in Harrisburg in 1975 by Tom Jeffers. It was founded as a response to Pennsylvania ordering the release of children detained at Camp Hill adult prison.
The organization has since spread to 32 states and Washington, D.C.
“Tom Jeffers started this organization and we have built upon his legacy, delivering and advocating for safe, effective, and less costly community-based alternatives to residential care and incarceration,” said YAP President and CEO, Gary Ivory in a recent release.
Youth Advocate Programs partners with youth justice, child welfare, education, and other family services systems across communities.
According to the YAP website, the organization has spent the past 50 years working with young people with criminal histories to provide alternatives to correctional facilities and reduce neighborhood violence.
A research study found that 86% of YAP’s youth justice participants remain arrest-free. The research also found that six months to one year after completing the program, 90% of youth still lived in their communities with less than 5% in secure placement.
Attendees at the 50th anniversary celebration of YAP enjoyed food, family fun, and activities to celebrate the organization’s work across the country that originated in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
