Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH Philly)
Pennsylvania | Philadelphia
Organization Description: YEAH Philly builds real safety, healing, and liberation with Black youth through community, accountability, and advocacy. We work to replace punishment and surveillance with care, opportunity, and justice, connecting violence intervention, youth led research, and policy transformation to dismantle systems that harm young people.
Eligibility: YEAH Philly works with young people in West, Southwest, and North Philadelphia between the ages of 15 to 24 who have been charged with gun and violent crimes.
Program Description: A core program of YEAH Philly includes the Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), which offers individualized and tailored services for young people charged with violent or gun crimes. VCI provides court advocacy and representation, holistic and individualized case management, financial assistance and cash stipends, community engagement opportunities, skill building, goal setting, safe hangout spaces, emotional support, and restorative justice problem solving. VCI’s innovative model centers youth voice and genuine relationships, tackles violence holistically as a public health issue, and has led to city and statewide policy changes, lower rates of recidivism, fair treatment and representation, and meaningful engagement and trust-building with youth—ultimately making communities safer while promoting healthy youth development and wellbeing with youth remaining in the community with authentic services versus incarceration.
Services Offered:
- Holistic and Wraparound Services
- Workplace Stability and Job Readiness Program
- Legal Advocacy and Representation
- Individualized Case Management
- Know Your Rights
- Peer Mediation and Conflict Resolution Training
- Financial Assistance and Cash Stipends
- Behavioral Health Services
Contact and Referral Information: To refer a youth to YEAH Philly, please contact teens@yeahphilly.org
Last Updated June 2026
