Young People in Action (YPIA) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides individualized and group services for underserved youth designed to uncover and develop their academic, creative, and leadership potential. With locations in Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, and Alexandria, Louisiana YPIA aims to empower and develop youth all across the nation. Since 1992, YPIA has been meeting
the complex needs of young people. It was started by Samuel Frazier of Shreveport, LA when he noticed that the needs of at-risk youth were largely unmet. So he set about creating YPIA to uncover their potential and heal their communities. With a holistic approach from caring professional staff, YPIA uses the latest innovative and effective techniques to deliver the impactful interventions focused on addressing the diverse complex needs of youth in the community. Problem: The neglect of the needs of at-risk and underserved youth have been linked to spikes of poverty, crime, teenage pregnancy, mental illness, drug abuse, and more which creates devastating results for their families and community it affects. In addition, the financial impact to tax payers due to increased police, prisons, property damage, and lost work force potential makes this a problem that cannot be ignored. In Alexandria, LA alone, the annual crime rate in 2014-2015 was 96.81 per 1000 residents making it ranked 1 on the Crime Index (safer than only 1% of the cities in the US). Alexandria ranks much higher than the state and national average in both violent and property crime with chances of becoming a victim being 1 in 60 for violent crime and 1 in 12 for property crime. Recently, the White House outlined the economic costs of youth disadvantage in a report from the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Lack of educational funding, community activities, and awareness of this issue has resulted in the tremendous waste of personal and professional potential of youngsters nationwide. However with your support, we can turn the tide to rebuild broken lives and communities. Solution: YPIA addresses the problem by combining counseling, mentoring, tutoring, training, social and experiential learning to empower youth to become their best selves. To complement group services, every enrolled young person is assessed and provided an individual care plan that will be used to monitor and track their development. In addition to our in-depth model of services for youth, YPIA has planned a calendar of community service and community building events to build the collective spirit of giving and connection that will return tangible value to the community. Description of services: YPIA is expanding its innovative Triple “P” Program that seeks to unite the primary pillars in the lives of youth (parents, principals, and pastors) to build character and discipline that will form the foundation of youth’s success. YPIA has also partnered with the RAPPS Program to provide much needed mentorship and guidance to youth ages 11-18. How you can help: We at YPIA cannot provide these valuable services to the community without the support of generous donors like yourself. Whether through volunteering, financial or in-kind donations, you can give a second chance to the lives of promising youth. Please contact us at [email protected] or 281.849.YPIA (9742) and partner with us today!
