Youth Advocate Programs, Inc.

Youth Advocate Programs, YAP, is a national nonprofit founded in 1975 that provides community-based services as alternatives to youth incarceration, residential placement and neighbourhood violence. The organisation operates across 35 states and Washington, DC, reaching urban, suburban and rural communities, and reports serving thousands of families each year. It describes its services as proven to reduce recidivism while keeping young people and their families together.

YAP's work rests on the YAPWrap® model, an evidence-based approach to individual and family wraparound services. Support is delivered by Advocates hired from the communities they serve and by mobile behavioural health professionals, who work with participants where they live, learn, work and play. The model is designed to address complex family challenges through intensive, individualised engagement rather than out-of-home placement.

The organisation's stated operating principles include a 'no reject, no eject' policy and a commitment to recruiting staff from the communities it serves. YAP works across youth justice, child welfare, behavioural health, education and public safety, and positions itself as a participant in systems reform. Roles reflect its community-based delivery model, with much of the work conducted in participants' homes and neighbourhoods rather than in institutional settings. Further information is available at yapinc.org.