YAP® Making Change Happen Awards Gala

Youth Advocate Programs (YAP^®), Inc. is thrilled to announce that on November 6, 2025, in recognition of our 50th anniversary, we will host our inaugural national YAP™ Making Change Happen Awards Gala in Philadelphia, PA. The daylong experience is a rare convening of national and global changemakers whose interconnected work is transforming youth justice, criminal justice/re-entry, child welfare, behavioral health, public safety, and other systems.

The 50th Anniversary YAP^® Making Change Happen Awards Gala will elevate the evolving collective energy that has fueled YAP’s 50 years 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.

Honorees will represent a spectrum of nonprofit practitioners, policymakers, researchers, corporate responsibility leaders, workforce development innovators, neighborhood-based employers, behavioral health experts, housing pathfinders, educators, foundation visionaries, activists, artists, intellectuals, and other continuum of care trailblazers, as well as people with lived experience.

YAP^® Making Change Happen Awards Gala will honor individuals whose passion and power are expediting trauma-informed youth justice, criminal justice, and family services systems reform. 

About YAP^®: Founded in 1975, Youth Advocate Programs (YAP^®), Inc. is the leading nonprofit provider of trauma-informed, 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 partnering with transforming systems to help them deliver stronger outcomes.