About Us:

The history and capacity of YEP is the history of recent reforms in juvenile justice in Louisiana. With the leadership and vision of three former employees of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), YEP incorporated as a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization in June 2004. JJPL and the Southern Poverty Law Center provided the seed money and incubation assistance needed to launch YEP. As JJPL employees, YEP’s founders were instrumental in reforming Louisiana’s juvenile justice system from one that was centered on incarceration (as a result of private jail construction, political corruption, racism and the injustice of poverty) to one that focuses on rehabilitation and the development of quality, community-based programs. Louisiana now has legislation that commits the state to reduce its reliance on unjust incarceration and to develop community programs that are geared to treat, rehabilitate, educate, and care for Louisiana’s children. The passage of Act 1225, The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003, marked the beginning of Louisiana’s journey toward a more egalitarian and rehabilitative juvenile justice system. Since 2003, one youth prison has closed and as of June 2006, the number of incarcerated youth has dropped to 566 from a high of 1,900 in 1997.

Prior to the recent statewide juvenile justice reforms in Louisiana, the founders of YEP lost many of their youth clients. A staggering number of their clients were killed in the streets of New Orleans and many more, despite good intentions and strong motivation, recidivated into the adult criminal or juvenile justice systems. YEP’s founders were disheartened by the fate of their clients and felt that the absence of community support and appropriate community-based services for adjudicated youth were partially to blame. Identifying this gap in services in the City of New Orleans -- YEP’s founders shifted their focus away from JJPL’s statewide mission and toward the creation of YEP -- a culturally competent, community-based, positive youth development program that targeted the specific needs of court involved youth from New Orleans. YEP’s founders knew that youth could effect positive change in their lives if they received caring and meaningful support and appropriate re-entry services. YEP was created by integrating first-hand knowledge of the re-entry needs of youth offenders with evidence-based modalities from youth development programs that are considered best practices.

There are no other programs in the city of New Orleans that provide holistic, wrap-around services to court-involved youth. YEP links youth with existing social services and community resources and it also provides in-house, culturally competent care that empowers youth and their families to advocate for themselves. YEP teaches youth and their families how to navigate legal, social service and greater community systems. It does this in part by collaborating with a wide range of local entities including the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, various faith-based organizations, mentors, educational programs, job-training centers and counseling specialists.