Essex County, N.J. – Going to school late, acting out in class, and talking back to her mom led Najah to Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc. in Essex County, N.J. when she was in the seventh grade.
“I was in middle school when I enrolled in the program because I was following the wrong people, but I wasn’t doing bad things,” Najah said. “I was acting out in school because I wasn’t accepted. I am 4 feet and 4 inches tall, and people would make fun of me and call me a midget. My parents were continually having to come to school for me.”
That was five years ago. Now Najah, 19, is finishing up her freshman year at Saint Elizabeth University College in Morristown, N.J.
“I don’t know where I would be without YAP,” she added. “I am doing amazing. I am in school and working a job.”
Celebrating its 50th year in 2025, YAP® partners with public systems to provide community-based wraparound and behavioral health services as an alternative to residential care. YAP® is a national nonprofit in 33 states and Washington, D.C., providing services that reduce the nation’s overreliance on youth incarceration, residential care, group homes and other out-of-home placements.
Najah was part of YAP® ‘s Essex County Community-Based Diversion Program, which has since ended, but like the nonprofit’s existing youth justice program, provided her with a neighborhood-based Advocate. YAP® Advocates are trained to deliver wraparound support to program participants and their parents, guardians and other family members. The evidence-based YAPWRAP® services model helps young people see and nurture their strengths and connects them and their families with individualized resources and support. The diversion program worked with low to medium-risk youth ages 13-17 who had begun to engage in antisocial and low-level delinquent pathways or formal involvement in the youth justice system. Program referrals came from parents and schools.
Najah said her Advocate helped her do everything she could to succeed, helping her with schoolwork. Najah became an honor roll student in high school and is a recent recipient of the Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund Scholarship for Continuing Education. She was awarded $1,200, applied to her school tuition. Eligible current and former program participants, along with their parents/guardians, can apply for the scholarship annually for tuition and fees assistance or a laptop computer.
“I let my wall down,” Najah said about working with her YAP Advocate. “I thought my parents were just being mean to me, sending me to work with a stranger, but that became someone that I really care about. I realized that I was taking advantage of my parents.”
In addition to being picked on at school, Najah says she was acting out because her sisters were older and not living at home anymore, leaving her lonely and bored. She is the youngest of her three siblings who are now 38 and 33. Najah’s parents worked long hours, so she sometimes ate dinner alone in the evenings but on Wednesdays she went to her local YAP office where she and other program participants heard from speakers each week who encouraged them. Her mom, a corrections officer, heard about the diversion program through Curtis Moore, who at the time was the program coordinator. Today Moore is the program director of YAP Essex County’s Youth Justice Program.
“Mr. Curtis would bring all of the youth together for focus groups and we would eat dinner and have conversations,” Najah said. “I love Mr. Curtis. He has a great impact on youth. Some days after school I was home by myself since my parents were working so I looked forward to those Wednesdays. At YAP we were all a family. There was tutoring and he would provide clothing if we needed it. We all looked out for one another. It touched my heart.”
Moore said he lives by a quote of the late W.E.B. Dubois when it comes to helping young people.
“’The gift of life is the Creator’s gift to us, but what we choose to do with our life is our gift to our Creator,’” Moore said quoting Dubois. “I choose to be a humble servant of my community and youth.”
Najah thanks her family for connecting her to YAP, along with Moore, her Advocate and all YAP staff for helping her in her pre-teen and teenage years.
“I want to thank the YAP program for their services to help save teens,” Najah said. “I’m glad I did all those bad things then because I know better now. I love YAP.”
For more information on YAP, visit yapinc.org.