YAP involved youth and adults in Lebanon County, PA, with the help of Lebanon Valley College Criminal Justice/Sociology seniors, and a passionate tech professional successfully completed YAPCyberWorx in December. YAPCyberWorx is a YAPWorx initiative designed to allow system involved youth the opportunity to improve their future economic opportunities through exploring technology careers, building social capital, while giving back to the community in new ways. This project also focused on empowering college students who will soon be stepping into human services careers to understand how young people who are system involved have been affected by poverty, trauma, and inequality, through collaboratively working on technology projects for 12 weeks.

YAP Youth and LVC students formed 13 teams that met on campus every Monday, in a semester-long competition where participants were challenged to see themselves as not only experts in understanding some of our communities’ most complex challenges, but also as community members capable of making positive changes in the world.

Bryan Mull, a tech professional with years of internet marketing/web design/cyber security donated over 100 hours of his time to coordinate the educational component and on-site tech support workshops for YAPCyberWorx participants, guiding the teams in understanding the nature of technology jobs, developing persuasive media, and developing websites to advocate for a cause and spread awareness.

YAPCyberWorx teams gave professional presentations of their projects at an end of semester gala where a panel of judges selected the top teams, emceed by Kenny Montijo, CEO of the United Way of Lebanon County. Their projects covered a variety of topics including child abuse, gang violence, gun violence, animal cruelty, transition assets, and dressing for success.

View the winning projects:

• 1st Place:  You Are Not Alone
• 2nd Place:  Gang Violence
• 3rd Place:  Animal Cruelty