Charleston, S.C.- Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. President Gary Ivory joined community health and policy experts in Charleston, Friday, April 8, at the Medical University of South Carolina to address gun violence and public health. The program was part of the MUSC’S 28th Annual Thomas A. Pitts Lectureship in Medical Ethics.
A national nonprofit in 32 states and the District of Columbia, YAP recently partnered with MUSC to implement a program called Lowcountry Rising Above Violence. YAP is in its 47th year of reducing recidivism by partnering with youth justice, child welfare, behavioral health, and other systems to deliver safe, effective, more racially equitable community-based services as an alternative to youth incarceration and congregate placements. In recent years, YAP has also partnered with communities to combine its unique evidence-based wraparound services model with evidence-backed violence interruption approaches to curb neighborhood violence.
As part of the lectureship’s afternoon session, Ivory joined MUSC Assistant Professor for Surgery Ashley Hink, M.D., who moderated “Breaking the Cycle: Interventions for Stopping Gun Violence.” Ivory offered insights on “Community Interventions: Connecting Past Offenders with Their Communities.”
“I was honored to join colleagues in this lecture series to discuss solutions to complex community challenges,” Ivory said. “YAP is proud to partner with MUSC to work locally to help decrease gun violence and increase safety in neighborhoods. Additionally, we help to provide much-needed wraparound services that connect young people and their families with tools to achieve healthy, positive goals.”
The lecture series was presented by MUSC’s Institute of Human Values in Health Care, Office of Humanities, and the College of Medicine Office of Continuing Medical Education. For more information about the 2022 Thomas A. Pitts Memorial Lectureship in Medical Ethics click here
For more information on YAP, visit yapinc.org