The Mission

By providing intensive case management, mentoring and educational services to at–risk New Orleans youth, we will strengthen each young person's capacity to successfully connect with his or her family and community and lay the foundation for a healthy transition to adulthood.

The Problem and the Opportunity

A few of my colleagues and I had been working at the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), doing statewide work with young people who were incarcerated. We were really successful in getting their sentences modified so that the kids could come home. However, we realized that we couldn't do the follow-up with the kids after they came back from jail and returned to their families and communities. We found that for the kids to be successful after they came back, they needed a lot of support.

Within a year and a half of working to get kids out of jail, six of my clients were killed in the streets of New Orleans. At that point, we were all really tired. The environments that the kids were going back to were so chaotic, many of the kids didn't have basic literacy skills, and they wound up reverting back to negative choices and in trouble.

The Innovative Idea

Rebecca, Angela, and I started having a lot of conversations and reading about what it was that kids really needed in order to be successful when they returned from secure facilities. We knew that they needed intense wraparound services, and we knew we needed to be creative in how we addressed each individual kid.

YEP began in 2004 to provide effective reintegration services to youth returning home from correctional institutions and group homes, and while our mandate and clientele have expanded, this is still a key service of the organization. Through the provision of intensive, individualized case management and support, YEP ensures that coordinated services are provided in meaningful and effective ways for youth making the very difficult - and critical - transition from facility to home.

We started out with strictly case management—we had a relationship-based model based on a mentor relationship. The kids have twenty-four hour access, and we kept caseloads small: 8-10 kids per mentor. On average, we saw kids five times a week, and we provided school advocacy, curfew checks, substance abuse groups, female and empowerment groups, anger management groups, mental health services, transportation, child care, etc. - whatever it was that kids needed. We had individual service plans, where we started looking at what kids' goals were and what they needed to do to reach their goals.

The Start-Up

Our project at JJPL was coming to a close—throughout the state, we had successfully helped nearly 1000 kids secure early releases from institutions and return home. Rebecca, Angela, and I approached JJPL about the fact that something was missing in what we were doing and we felt that we knew what the kids needed in order to reintegrate into their communities successfully.

JJPL's leadership was supportive of our idea and they gave us initial start-up funding to get through our first couple of months. Rebecca Kendig, at LCSW, began researching best practices and effective program models, and we began building a program that would be effective and give our youth holistic support and services. Rebecca's expertise in case management was instrumental. Additionally, we received a lot of mentorship from JJPL's Associate Director, who assisted us with our bylaws and 501(c)(3) application. In addition, JJPL allowed us to sublease our current space, so we could share use our existing furniture and computer network. In other words, JJPL was our incubator. Because of the stability and support they provided us, we were able to get the foundation that we needed to grow into our own.

In the first two to three months, we started with intensive case management services that focused on the successful reintegration of our youth returning to New Orleans from secure facilities. Our first supporters, besides JJPL and their key supporter, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), were Baptist Community Ministries and the Institute of Mental Hygiene. With this initial support, we were able to negotiate a contract work with the Louisiana Office of Youth Development. Then came Hurricane Katrina – and YEP consisted of us three founders and two Youth Advocates. We had 15 clients at the time and worked with our funders to find a way to continue to help our kids and families and also ensure we had enough funds to make payroll.

In 2006, while sitting on my porch in Austin (I was commuting twice a month to New Orleans), I became overwhelmed with my frustration at the state of education in New Orleans for youth and I formulated the idea of starting a literacy/GED program for our kids. I wrote a grant, received seed money from Mercy Corps and then started interviewing and finding part-time teachers. The response from the kids was overwhelming, and soon, we received additional funding from the GPOA Foundation. About 6 months later, we started a collaborative with Delgado Community College and Criminal District Court and formed the Tulane Tower Learning Center – which currently provides GED and Literacy services to approximately 300 students.

Our Impact and Accomplishments

Over the past four years, we've come a long way what began as a staff of four is now staff of thirteen. We have stayed true to the founding ideals of our agency, have reached many youth, and we continue to be creative and think out of the box. We've earned local and statewide recognition for being at the cutting edge of progressive, youth re-entry programs and implementing the first-of-its kind in Louisiana.

Since our inception in 2004, we have successfully provided case management and mentoring services to 167 youth and educational services to over 400 students. The youth we serve have always been among the most disadvantaged and at-risk in our community and their needs are exacerbated post-Katrina. Currently we provide comprehensive, in-house services to our youth clients and families, such as intensive and individualized case management services, individualized mentoring/youth advocacy, GED/literacy classes through NOPLAY (New Orleans Providing Literacy to All Youth), transportation services for clients and families, parenting classes for our young adult parents, male and female empowerment groups, out-of-state field trips, extra-curricular activities, etc. For the full list of programs, please click here.

Overcoming Challenges

When we first started, one of my biggest concerns was having the funds we needed to move forward. We were not established, people didn't know us, and we were in a vulnerable financial spot. Once we proved ourselves and formed relationships, folks were a lot more inclined to fund our programs. The people who did support us—I am forever grateful for--as they took a gamble on us and our promise to effect change with the youth whose lives we touched.

How did I overcome this challenge? I don't like failing at anything. If the people you are working with have dogged determination, a real passion for the work and an unwavering commitment to an organization and its mission, you can make things happen. All of us at YEP remain completely committed to our youth, community and our work. I think that when others see the passion and genuine commitment that we share that they are more willing to take a risk--which definitely helped us get a foot in the door. Once we were able to get our foot in the door, we were able to let our work speak for itself.

Our Current Needs

1. Space: we've completely outgrown this space and are looking to acquire a larger space with more room (including showers, a full kitchen, game room, etc.) for the kids who come to our central city office and use the space as sort of a "youth center" where they hang out, talk with one another, eat Hot Pockets, watch television, get on myspace, etc. We consider all the kids in the community our kids, and it's pretty fun to have young people always in and out. We just need more room for them.
2. Fundraising and capital campaign: to think of a capital campaign for this space is exhausting because we are still trying to meet our programmatic budget.
3. Board recruitment and development
4. Mentoring for our Executive staff
5. Developing corporate relationships

Support and Contact

If you can help out with any of these needs or if you'd like to make a donation, please contact Melissa Sawyer at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .