Endowment Fund

Our participants have extraordinary skills, talents and dreams, and we want them to have every opportunity to grow, advance their skills and achieve their educational goals! To help support them in their endeavors, we established an Endowment Fund to provide scholarships to current and former YAP youth and families who are pursuing post-secondary education or training.

Whether the goal is college, truck driving school, a technical certification or other practical endeavors, we provide support for young people to advance their economic opportunities. The scholarships are flexible and, in addition to tuition, can be used to meet concrete needs like books, tools or a computer.

Since its inception in 2004, YAP employees have raised over $2 million, facilitating scholarships for over 300 recipients. In 2014, the fund was renamed the Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education in honor of YAP's founder.

 
 

Information

 
 

Patty Rosati, Endowment President

 

APPLY

All Current or Former
YAP Participants Are Eligible

Our scholarships are flexible and can be used for concrete needs that support your education. In addition to tuition, we have paid for books, bought cutlery for a recipient going to culinary school, paid for tools and a tool box for a young person learning a trade, and purchased a computer for a student. Scholarships amounts are typically $1,000.

 

If you have ever been in a YAP program, you are eligible for the scholarship. Caregivers of current or former YAP participants qualify too!

 

You can re-apply and receive scholarships each year of your vocational or educational program at any point in your lifetime.

 

Complete the one-page application and review requirements. Keep in mind that you must first be accepted into a school or training program before you can apply.

 

Thank you from Cierra

solution
 
 
 
 

FUNDRAISING

YAP Employees are the Biggest Supporters
of the Endowment Fund

Through voluntary payroll deductions, employees give $19,000 annually in order to brighten the futures of our youth. Even more, they organize fundraisers to raise money through basket raffles, golf tournaments, car washes, walk-a-thons, vending machines, cookbooks, and apparel sales.

Stories of Past Recipients

${PTime}

Scholarships support program participants and their families with school and job training

${PTime}

Scholarships support program participants and their families with school and job trainingHarrisburg, Pa. – Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. is proud to announce 29 former program participants or their guardians received Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education Scholarships in 2021. The special scholarship is in the amount of $1,000 that can be used towards school and job training costs or in the form of a laptop computer. Program participants can reapply annually based on nee...

${PTime}

Tom Jeffers’ Vision when he founded Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. 45 years ago was to provide safe and effective alternatives to youth incarceration and residential child welfare placements. YAP’s community-based youth and family services model delivers neighborhood-based Advocates who are trained to empower participants with skills to identify their strengths, accessible rehabilitative tools needed to achieve their goals, and resources to meet their basic needs. YAP founder To...

${PTime}

Emily was about 14 when she got involved with Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. By then, she said her family had experienced significant trauma “including loss of my baby sister which tremendously effected our lives. My mother got into drugs, my father was in and out of jail. I felt as I was taking care of me and my two younger brothers at the time.”Emily said things were made even more difficult because one of her brothers was diagnosed with autism and the other has intellectual d...

${PTime}

Evan’s introduction to Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc., came during his junior year in high school. “I was struggling with depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. I had difficulty making friends and I felt that my interpersonal relationships were all falling apart.”Evan opened up about his challenges growing up in his application letter for the YAP Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education Scholarship. Recipients of the $1,000 award are young people served by th...

${PTime}

A junior studying filmmaking at Rochester Institute of Technology, Kristie received Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc.’s behavioral health services as a child, and her siblings who struggle with developmental challenges continue to receive services. The family has faced poverty, health issues and with the mother’s recent incarceration, the threat of family separation. “I almost lost my siblings to foster care, something that is still a real threat. But every day, [my YAP ...

${PTime}

A Shippensburg University Art major, Ernest’s love for art began when he was a child participating in Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc.’s behavioral health program. Art was central to his therapy.“When you’re born with Autism, society’s norms separate you from everyone else. You’re seen as the individuals who periodically lost control of his emotions. In social situations, you’re the first to make things awkward; your level of social cognition ranges f...

${PTime}

Oct. 21, 2019 – It takes a village to support youth in their communities as an alternative to incarceration and institutionalization. That’s why Maryland-DC Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. asked Baltimore Chef Ray “Ziggy” Davis, owner of Flight American Fusion Restaurant & Bar, to keynote their 5th Community Banquet, Oct. 25, (dinner program, 5:15 pm – 7:15 pm). An alternative to youth incarceration and out-of-home placement, YAP relies on Davis and oth...