Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. is thrilled to announce that on November 8, 2025, in recognition of our 50th anniversary, we will host our inaugural YAP™ Making Change Happen 5k, Walk and Food Truck Brunch in Harrisburg, PA. The anniversary event will raise awareness of YAP as a national change leader headquartered in Harrisburg, PA and raise general operating funds to support the nonprofit’s work.

Founded in 1975 in Harrisburg, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP)™, Inc. is the leading nonprofit provider of trauma-informed, culturally relevant services that reduce the nation’s overreliance on youth incarceration, residential care, and group home foster placements. We partner with public systems to provide community-based wraparound and behavioral health services as an alternative to out-of-home placement. We also incorporate our time-tested model in our approach to deliver community violence intervention services. Our unique YAPWrap™ service model, capacity building, and policy work make us an innovator in transforming systems to become more effective and equitable.

The 50th Anniversary YAP™ Making Change Happen 5k, Walk and Food Truck Brunch will elevate the evolving collective energy that has fueled YAP’s half century of delivering and advocating for community-based alternatives to youth prisons, group homes, and residential care, and addressing individualized needs of those at the highest risk of engaging in violence. While over the past decades, YAP has operated largely with funding from our government referral partners, we rely on foundation, corporate, and individual donors to bolster efforts to scale our effective model to reach more individuals, families, and neighborhoods across the nation.

The 50th Anniversary YAP™ Making Change Happen 5k, Walk and Food Truck Brunch will facilitate collaboration among Central PA residents, attendees, and other supporters whose passion and power are expediting trauma-informed youth justice, criminal justice, behavioral health, developmental disabilities/autism, and interconnected family services systems reform. 

Registration and Details Coming Soon!