Preparing people who face employment barriers with job skills that will be sustainable in the future is important to Youth Advocate Programs (YAP®), Inc. National Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development Patrick Young.
“You can get a job right now but why put yourself in a situation where your position will be eliminated in the next few months,” Young said.
YAP® is a national nonprofit that partners with public systems to provide community-based wraparound and behavioral health services as an alternative to youth incarceration and residential care. With government partnerships in communities in 32 states and Washington, DC. the national nonprofit applies principles of its evidence-based youth and family services model to also help cities reduce violence.
“I like the idea that we’re able to prepare people who face employment barriers for jobs that are not going to be non-existent in the next year,” said Young, who joined YAP® last year and has been working to expand the organization’s workforce development programs by working with employers to match the training and experience opportunities to the businesses’ future needs.
Through partnerships with community employers and volunteers, YAPWORX® provides a job skills and positive work habit curriculum designed for individuals who face barriers to employment. YAP® Supported Work matches program participants with employers, many of them small businesses in their neighborhoods, who give young people on-the-job work experiences. Through government and philanthropic partnerships, young people receive compensation from YAP for both YAPWORX® and YAP® Supported Work.
Young is working with the Tools of Thought team at the University of Chicago’s Education Lab to develop a Work Readiness Credential that program participants and families will receive once they complete specific YAP® workforce training.
“Our next-generation YAP® Supported Work and YAPWORX will have a credential option from the University of Chicago that acknowledges the completion of the work readiness model,” Young said.
The YAPWORX® curriculum will offer experiences for system involved youth, those with intellectual disabilities or autism, participants’ parents, and individuals returning from correctional facilities and others at the greatest risk for violence engagement.
- YAP® youth (ages 14-24) focused on career discovery, soft skills and identify formation
- YAP® (individuals with disabilities or barriers) Offices of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) focusing on accessibility, adaptive technology and self-advocacy
- YAP® (parents and adults) focusing on economic stability, digital literacy and balance
- YAP® Reentry and Community Violence Intervention (returning citizens and credible messengers) focuses on capital rebuilding and trauma-informed employment.
“I’ve done a lot of this work in local spaces in parts and pieces and I think what I like about YAP the most so far is that there’s not a lot of pushback on my ideas, I get an opportunity to explore some of my ideas,” Young said. “It’s the ability to innovate and be inclusive, that’s what I really like.”
Prior to joining YAP®, Young served as Director of Economic Empowerment at The First 72+ and also held leadership roles with the New Orleans Business Alliance and City of New Orleans’ Mayor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention. He is Leaders of Color Fellow and has served as a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Global Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy and Georgetown University’s New Strategies Rising Program.
For more information on YAP®, visit yapinc.org.
