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The Youth
Empowerment Project (YEP) is a community-based, 501 (c)
3 non-profit organization that targets the needs of
at-risk youth and young adults from the Greater New
Orleans region. YEP was created in 2004 as a response to
the lack of quality programs that existed to help
underserved youth avoid the disastrous consequences of
street crime, poor education and a lack of employment
opportunities. YEP’s clients are some of the most
deprived youth in the community. The typical YEP client
is an African-American youth who is between 15-18 years
of age. He has dropped out of school, is court involved,
lives in a female-headed household, resides in a
neighborhood that has a high concentration of poverty
and crime and is isolated from mainstream society. |
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YEP
Youth with Melissa Sawyer |
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The unique combination of family-centered and
strength-based services that YEP provides guides at-risk
youth and their families toward positive and productive
lives. YEP implements wraparound plans to link clients
with the resources they need. These plans often include:
educational assistance, enrichment activities,
drug/alcohol services, counseling, life skills
development, job placement and family support services.
Our mission statement, “by providing legal advocacy,
intensive aftercare and case management to at-risk New
Orleans youth, we will strengthen each young person’s
capacity to successfully connect with their families and
communities and lay the foundation for their healthy
transition to adulthood” has been expanded post-Katrina
to meet the needs of our community. We now provide a
wider array of services to assist court-involved and
out-of-school New Orleans’ youth.
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NOPLAY student with instructor |
Hurricane
Katrina:
The Youth
Empowerment Project's staff, clients and office all
survived Hurricane Katrina. Currently, in addition to
our main office in New Orleans, YEP staff members are
temporarily working out of satellite offices in Baton
Rouge, Houston, Dallas and Austin. Many of our youth are
re-joining family members in areas throughout LA and TX
and our current locations give us easy access to our
displaced New Orleans clients and families.
Since Hurricane Katrina, YEP has worked with 35 New
Orleans youth (some of whom are back in Orleans
and Jefferson parishes -- others who are still
displaced). 14 of these youth were YEP clients
prior to the storm and the other 21 were youth
from New Orleans who were in secure custody when
the storm hit.
Because of the increased need caused by Katrina,
we are now working with a larger caseload than
at any other time during our history. |
photo credits on this page: Joseph Rodriguez |
