Gloucester County, NJ – Former Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc. participant Atira used her turbulent past as motivation to pursue her collegiate dreams.
“Ever since I was little, I bounced around from house to house,” Atira wrote in her Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund for Continuing Education essay. “Drugs were always in the picture [at home], so things were really tough growing up. A month before my senior year…my baby brother and I ended up in child protection services.”
Atira and her brother were separated when they were removed from the home. She went to live with her godmother, which provided her with some stability.
“It turned out to be a good thing,” Atira said. “I’d spent a lot of summers with her whenever things got rough at home or when we didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
When Atira chose to live independently, she became involved in YAP® Gloucester County’s Youth Justice program, where she was paired with an Advocate who helped her navigate young adulthood. She empowered Atira to see her strengths and connected her to economic, educational, and emotional tools to help set her up for success. The program served youth by providing wraparound support services to youth who were self-referred, or referred by the family courts, law enforcement or other entities.
“My [Advocate] was a huge help,” Atira wrote. “She taught me how to live on my own and stay focused on what really matters, like school and my health.”
YAP® is a national nonprofit that partners with youth justice, child welfare, and other systems in communities across the U.S. to deliver family-centered, accountability-focused services as an alternative to correctional and residential care facilities. YAP® provides individuals and family wraparound and mental health services as an alternative to placing young people in trouble or crisis in residential care/treatment and corrections facilities.
Current and former YAP® program participants and their families are encouraged to apply for the Tom Jeffers Endowment Fund scholarship. Thanks to donors – most of whom are YAP® employees – beneficiaries are eligible to apply for and receive the scholarship annually. The award is $1,500 for college or trade school tuition, fees or supplies, or a laptop computer. The unique Endowment Fund also received generous donations from the YAP® Board of Directors and other contributors.
Atira has received the award six times during her college matriculation at Rutgers University-Camden where she earned her bachelor’s degree in health sciences and criminal justice. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in criminal justice with hopes to continue to earn her doctorate degree and join the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Evidence Response Team.
“I am so proud of her,” said Endowment President and YAP® Chief of Staff Patty Rosati. “It is stories like Atira’s that make giving to the Endowment Fund so important. YAP is all about supporting our youth, young adults, and families as they find their way in pursuing their dreams.”
Atira is thankful to YAP® and the Tom Jeffers Fund for helping assist her as she navigates her education journey.
“I used to dream of being a health professional ever since kindergarten, but my goals have shifted,” Atira added. I still want to help people in a different way. Now, I want to help victims get the justice they deserve.”
For more information on YAP®, visit yapinc.org. To make a contribution to the Endowment Fund, click here.
