Dear YAP Supporter,



2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Youth Advocate Programs (YAP^®), Inc. Tom Jeffers founded YAP in 1975, providing a community-based services alternative for children released on a court order from Camp Hill Prison. The alternative is the simple, but effective neighborhood-based individual and family services model that for 50 years has helped communities in the U.S. and abroad rehabilitate and put young people on a positive path.

Over the past five decades, YAP has grown to become the premier national nonprofit giving local government systems an alternative to sending young people away from home for residential care or incarceration. Principles of our evidence-based individual and family YAPWrap^® model are also at the foundation of our behavioral health services and our data-informed community-based programs that reduce violence among youth and adults who are at the highest risk of engagement. Our unconditional caring services include paid community-based YAP Supported Work jobs and YAPWORX^® workforce development; YAP staff-funded Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund scholarships, and restorative justice practices that contribute to the sustainability of our evidence-based services.

You’re a part of the continuum of care that contributes to our success, and we invite you to join us for our 50th anniversary celebrations. In November, the month of our founding, we will host a summit and awards gala in Philadelphia and a 5k walk/run and food truck brunch at our national headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa. These events will honor current and former YAP leaders and highlight our program participants, alumni, staff and our community partners – nonprofits, neighborhood-based businesses, foundations, corporations, researchers and workforce development, housing, education, re-entry, mental health and other resources that make our work possible.