At age 16, everything in Saran’s life changed and it wasn’t easy.
She and her father returned to New Jersey from Ghana where they had been living with his family since she was a toddler. She struggled to adjust to cultural differences at school and had a tough time at home getting to know her biological mother.
“She spoke very little English,” Saran said. “It was hard to adjust. The only way to communicate was through my dad and that meant making my mother feel left out.”
Referred by a friend, Saran became a participant in Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc.’s New Jersey Community-based Violence Prevention Program. She will share her story as a panelist at the Nov. 6, 2025, 50th anniversary YAP® Making Change Happen Summit in Philadelphia. YAP® is a national nonprofit that partners with youth justice, child welfare, behavioral health, education, and public safety systems to deliver community-based alternatives to placing young people in trouble, in crisis, or who face other complex challenges in residential care or corrections facilities. The state-funded anti-violence program uses principles of YAP®’s evidence-based alternatives-to-placement model to serve young people in five counties identified as being at the greatest risk of being engaged as a perpetrator or victim in violence.
The violence prevention approach, also known as YAP Pursuing Excellence®, offers cognitive behavioral therapy and elements of the nonprofit’s YAPWrap® youth and family wraparound services model. Especially meaningful to Saran was YAP® Supported Work. Focusing on program participants’ strengths, YAP® Advocates place participants in jobs in their communities where they receive paid work experience. Saran was beyond excited to learn she would be able to work at Newark’s Source of Knowledge bookstore.
“Eight to ten minutes into my interview, I already felt a sense of belonging,” Saran said. “Ms. Masani [the bookstore’s co-owner] is from Ghana. I left with a smile.”
Saran continued to smile when she went to work at the bookstore. Meantime, things calmed down at home and at school. She said she was sad when her time with YAP® and Source of Knowledge ended, but that Ms. Masani told her she can always come back if she needs something.
Today, Saran is a college student with plans to become a nurse. In her free time, she goes back to visit with her friends at the bookstore, volunteering at in-store events and community fairs, feeding homeless neighbors, and sharing her love of reading.
Learn more about YAP® and the nonprofit’s 50th anniversary events at yapinc.org/50th.
