Yavapai County, Ariz. — Three Yavapai County, Arizona youths mustered the courage to stand before board members and leaders of Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. to share stories of change – from incarceration and probation to putting their lives on a positive course, educationally, economically, and/or emotionally.
A national nonprofit in 34 states and Washington, D.C., YAP is celebrating its 50th anniversary – five decades of giving communities safe and effective alternatives to placing young people in detention, group homes, psychiatric hospitals, and other out-of-home residential rehabilitative and treatment facilities. YAP hires and trains neighborhood-based Advocates and behavioral health professionals to empower youth with skills to see, embrace and nurture their strengths. At the same time, YAP staff connect parents, guardians, and other family members to economic, educational, and emotional tools to help program participants thrive and give back to their communities. In recent years, YAP has also worked with cities to use core principles of its YAPWRAP® individual and family wraparound services model to help curb neighborhood violence.
“I was doing stupid stuff,” one program participant told the YAP leaders. He said he went from making what he called stupid choices that landed him in trouble, mostly at school, to being on track to graduate high school in a couple of years. “I’m more able to make decisions for myself other than following someone else,” he said, adding that he’s looking forward to trade school or college.
Yavapai County Juvenile Probation Department began referring youths to YAP in 2020 after receiving a program startup grant awarded through the Safely Home Fund, a YAP partnership with Georgetown University’s Center for Juvenile Justice Reform. YAP sustained Yavapai-County justice involved youth services with funding from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Title II Formula Grant. The Yavapai County YAP office serves additional youth and families through an OJJDP Yavapai-Apache Nation reservation grant.
“I wasn’t myself or who I was, or what I was doing,” 18-year-old Matreya told the crowd.
A new mom who brought her infant daughter with her to the luncheon, Matreya has recently returned from a youth facility to the Yavapai-Apache Nation reservation where she lives with her father and stepmother. She said communication issues at home were at the root of how she ended up in trouble and that her YAP Advocate Cami Pollard was a tremendous help in connecting her and her parents with tools to ease the strain.
“We talk more; we know how to communicate,” Matreya said.
Matreya used her communication skills to get a job in the hotel industry and is looking forward to either growing in the hospitality business or pursuing a career in cosmetology. She’s also a budding artist and had an opportunity through YAP to explore art therapy.
“Art helps me a lot,” she said. “I like drawing flowers and butterflies.”
Like Matreya, Amilli was also in a youth facility before a judge and her probation officer sent her to YAP.
The connection strengthened her relationship with her father, who has grown closer to since returning home. She learned that like her, he struggled as a youth and had been placed in many group homes before he was an adult.
“Hearing his stories I know I get my strength from my dad; I look up to him where he started and where he’s at now,” she said.
Amilli said that through YAP, she is connecting with positive people and places and working to strengthen her relationship with her father, which is helping her see herself differently.
“No one should be ashamed of having self-compassion,” Amilli said. “Before I was like I was kind of just shutting out all my feelings and kind of pretending I care. I’m just thankful that I have all this support in my life, I have my dad but it’s good to build bonds with other people too and I’m just glad I got to do it.”
YAP Board Chair Teddy Reese was touched by the bond between Amilli and her father.
“It’s clear to see he’s the beat in your heart and that he came out and joined us today,” he said.
YAP Yavapai County Program Director Patty Delp works with local partner organizations and funders to keep the program going. She said the young people she introduced to YAP Board members and leaders are a testament to how YAP is changing the trajectory of the lives of youth, their families, and their communities.
“They’re the real deal,” she said.
Learn more about YAP at www.YAPInc.org.