Innovation
Jobs Pay

Innovation

YAP® often adds interventions to our core services to better meet the needs of young people and families served. We include evidence-based interventions when we work with young people. We may use Peaceful Alternatives to Tough Situations with justice-involved youth, or Strengthening Families to support parents in the child welfare system. We decide which interventions to add to our programming in partnership with the local community stakeholders.

YAP® has also developed interventions that supplement our core services. Innovations like YAP® Supported Work and YAPWorx® help participants build their skills and connect them to economic opportunities.

 

WORK

Supported Work

Connecting youth with meaningful vocational training and employment is critical to long-term positive outcomes. YAP®'s Supported Work provides participants with opportunities to develop job skills and positive work habits through transitional job experience that may lead to long-term employment. YAP® Supported Work participants are classified as work-training or work-relief trainees, not employees, and their wages are subsidized by YAP®. Along with the support of YAP® Advocates, these subsidies encourage employers to offer apprentice-like positions to program participants who may otherwise face insurmountable obstacles to landing a job because of their background, life circumstances, or developmental challenges.

 
 
 

YAPWorx®: Workforce Development for Young People Facing Employment Barriers

 

Connecting to the world of work is something most young people are able to with just a little help. Unfortunately, many of the participants we serve need extra support connecting to people and experiences to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for long-term labor market success. Young people we serve have lower rates of labor force participation and fewer opportunities to discover their own unique contribution to the world of work. YAP® Advocates expose young people to career pathways, service opportunities and skill building opportunities. Through their donations to the Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education scholarsship, YAP® staff also help to “spark” program participants' investments in education, skills training, and pursuing positive lifestyles by showing them how it relates to future economic self-sufficiency.

YAP®’s Workforce Development Model is developed on a Positive Youth Justice (PYJ) framework. It’s a bit of a departure from traditional Workforce Development approaches used 1:1 or in groups; and it is individualized to meet the specific needs of each program participant. It can be delivered in a classroom, living room, kitchen table, front stoop or park bench. YAP® Advocates are “feet in the street” and meet program participants where they are, building a trust relationship through their relentless outreach and responsiveness to individualized needs and preferences. These attributes help to engage individuals who otherwise may not succeed in more traditional workforce development programs.

 
YAPWORX® FACT SHEET