Copyright Mechanicsburg Patriot News
Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc., will celebrate five decades of serving as the nation’s premier nonprofit provider of community-based alternatives to youth incarceration and residential care with a YAP® Making Change Happen Food Truck Brunch on Saturday, Nov. 8, at its Harrisburg headquarters. Hosted by Elise Person, the brunch will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon at 3899 N. Front St., where attendees will enjoy family activities, learn about the nonprofit’s history and impact, and enjoy tasty breakfast and lunch choices from truck vendors, including Blue Bear BBQ and Mumma’s Eats & Treats. It will follow the “50th Anniversary YAP® Making Change Happen 5k," which is set to start at 8 a.m. at Riverfront Walk, Path Connecting to City Island, City Island-Riverfront Park. Registration for the 5k is $35; $40 on race day, and, while supplies last, will include a commemorative YAP® T-shirt. A half-mile Kids Fun Run will take place at 8:30 a.m. More information and a spot to register can be found at this link. Youth Advocate Programs partners with public systems to provide community-based rehabilitative, restorative, behavioral health, intellectual/developmental disabilities, and other services that give communities alternatives to placing young people in group care and correctional facilities, according to a release. Neighborhood-based YAP® Advocates and behavioral health professionals are trained to deliver individual and family support guided by principles of the nonprofit’s unique wraparound services model. The evidence-based YAPWRAP® model helps young people see and nurture their strengths and connects them and their families with individualized resources and support. Tom Jeffers founded YAP® in 1975 in Harrisburg (serving Philadelphia since 1978) as a community-based youth justice alternative when Pennsylvania ordered the release of children detained at Camp Hill adult prison. Today, the organization has spread to 32 states and Washington, D.C., giving members and the organization’s supporters plenty to cheer about. “We’re inviting program participants, families, friends, employees, supporters and our neighbors to join us in commemoration of our organization’s 1975 founding, where it all started in Pennsylvania,” YAP® President/CEO Gary Ivory said in the release. “Tom Jeffers started this organization and we have built upon his legacy, delivering and advocating for safe, effective, and less costly community-based alternatives to residential care and incarceration.” The brunch and fun run in Harrisburg is the second of two major events that Youth Advocate Programs is planning this week. The first one will take place on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. The YAP® Making Change Happen Summit and YAP® Making Change Happen Awards Gala will bring together youth justice, child welfare, mental health, and public safety practitioners, researchers, and former YAP® program participants. It will also honor YAP® pioneers and other American changemakers, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott, whose work has led to stronger outcomes with safer and less costly justice, family, and public safety services. Hosted by Philadelphia hip-hop radio legend and former YAP® Advocate Colby Tyner, the summit features Emmy-nominated actor Richard Cabral as keynote lunch speaker. Cabral, a former gang member rehabilitated through Homeboy Industries, will be introduced by Natassia and Jesse, two former justice-involved YAP® program participants. Lunch will follow two morning panel discussions. The awards gala Thursday evening will feature special guest Judge Glenda Hatchett, star of two-time Emmy-nominated “Judge Hatchett” and “The Verdict with Judge Hatchett,” and a former Chief Judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court in Georgia. Honorees include: Roseanna Ander, University of Chicago Crime Lab and University of Chicago Education Lab’s Founding Executive Director Shay Bilchik, Affiliate Researcher and Founder and Director Emeritus, Center for Youth Justice at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy John Kelly, Co-Executive Director of Fostering Media Connections/Senior Editor of The Imprint Sam Lewis, Justice Program Director, Los Angeles County Justice Care and Opportunities Department; Founder, Endless Hope and Redemption, LLC; Former Anti-Recidivism Coalition Executive Director Heidi Mueller, Director, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Bill Ryan, Criminal Justice Reform Pioneer Liz Ryan, Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University/Former Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Vincent Schiraldi, Visiting Fellow, The Pinkerton Foundation/ Formerly served as New York City Probation and Correction Commissioner and oversaw youth justice for the State of Maryland and Washington, D.C. Brandon M. Scott, 52nd Mayor of Baltimore, Spearheading Historic Reductions in Violence
