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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...