Harrisburg, Pa., - Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. - a high impact social change nonprofit providing community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, congregate placements, and neighborhood violence – has released its 2021 ‘Impact and Outcomes’ Annual Report.
YAP is in 32 states and the District of Columbia with a 46-year history of reducing recidivism and keeping communities safer by delivering effective, more racially equitable community-based services as an alternative to youth incarceration and congregate child welfare and behavioral health placements.
“Throughout 2021, amid the COVID-19 rollercoaster, the Great Resignation, increased violence in neighborhoods across the U.S., and other challenges, YAP’s leaders and staff rose to the occasion,” said YAP Board of Directors Chair Teddy Reese. “I invite you to read and share our 2021 Impact and Outcomes Report to learn how YAP's work empowered young people who might have otherwise been in youth detention, prisons, or out-of-home child welfare, behavioral health, intellectual disabilities/autism, or other congregate care to see their strengths and employ them in ways that will compel sustainable positive individual, family, and community change.”
In 2021, the nonprofit was able to serve 16,500 families and reached the following outcomes with youth:
- 86% lived safety in the community at discharge;
- 97% were not convicted of new felony while in program;
- 83% graduated or are attending school regularly; and there was a
- 26% decrease in open CPS cases.
“It takes a community to provide the unique culturally responsive wraparound and behavioral health programs delivered by YAP Advocates and other YAP frontline workers in the diverse neighborhoods we serve,” said YAP President Gary Ivory. “To all YAP’s public partners, thank you for your trust and support in sustaining our work.”
Additionally, YAP offers violence interruption and prevention services in Baltimore, Chicago, Charlotte (a partnership with the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and Cure Violence Global), Dallas and Washington, DC, and most recently Charleston, S.C.
You can find the 2021 Annual Report here. To find out more about YAP, visit yapinc.org.