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Media Advisory
For Immediate Release
Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. Contact:
Ryanne Persinger
[email protected]
(704) 909-9757
Great Plains Restoration Council Contact:
Founder Jarid Manos
[email protected]
Or Janine Cavasar
[email protected]
(817) 595-6505
April 21, 2022
Media Availability
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2022 *Other days/times may be available by request.
Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Place: 5532 Rocky Creek Park Road, Crowley, TX 76036
Youth Justice Program Participants to Learn About Ecological Health through Restoration Not Incarceration™ Green Jobs & Fort Worth Prairie Work Week
Fort Worth, Texas – Program participants of Tarrant County's Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc., will learn about Ecological Health - the health of people, animals, and ecosystems - during Restoration Not Incarceration™ & Fort Worth Prairie Park Work Week during April 21-26. The week will include prairie restoration on the native Fort Worth Prairie (now one of the most endangered native ecosystems in North America) and nature-based work therapy for re-entry youth.
YAP participants from the alternative-to-youth incarceration program are young people who have been in the youth justice system and are connected with YAP Advocates, behavioral health specialists or other community programs, aimed at keeping them safely home and out of congregant placement. Tarrant County Juvenile Services and YAP work in partnership to promote positive youth development. YAP is a national nonprofit in 32 states and the District of Columbia and is in its 47th year of providing community-based wraparound services as an alternative to youth incarceration and congregate child welfare, behavioral health, and intellectual disabilities placements.
"YAP's community-based model is all about helping young people see their strengths and connecting them and their parents, guardians, and other family members with tools to achieve positive goals," said Sonny Chapa, Program Director of Tarrant County YAP. "Great Plains Restoration Council's Restoration Not Incarceration program is an excellent tool that will provide our program participants with unique experiences that will benefit them now and for years to come."
In partnership with the Great Plains Restoration Council's Restoration Not Incarceration™ program, YAP youth will be paid for working outdoor green jobs clearing brush overgrowth that is choking out native prairie on federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land near Benbrook Lake, thereby allowing the grassland's rare biodiversity to flourish and provide habitat for wildlife like continentally-migrating (and declining) grassland nesting birds and Monarch butterflies while preserving water quality in the Upper Trinity River Watershed and providing ecological support for climate change resilience. Additionally, youth will take an introductory course in Ecological Health Practices and Principles, and if they pass, will receive certification. Restoration Not Incarceration™ (RNI) provides ecological restoration and preservation in conjunction with rehabilitation and recidivism reduction of young adults and juveniles. Based in Texas, RNI currently also offers work with partners in West Atlanta's old growth forest and South Florida's wild shark and mangrove ecosystems.
"We take care of our own health through taking care of the endangered Earth. By taking care of others, we take care of ourselves," said Jarid Manos, Founder of the nonprofit Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC). "Through GPRC's Ecological Health model, nature-based work therapy tactically restoring and protecting threatened wild places and wildlife helps participants become more unbreakable and become ecosystem participants. The interconnected nurture and strengthening of self and Earth buttresses mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness."
Shop at smile.amazon.com to support GPRC. Simply SELECT Great Plains Restoration Council after clicking the link.
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