The Youth Empowerment Project (Y.E.P.)
The Youth Empowerment Project (Y.E.P.) was developed over more than 15 years of service to the youth of Salem-Keizer. In the mid-1990s, its offerings included after school tutoring and cultural classes, as well as a safe gathering place for youth in Salem at Mano a Mano’s office then located on Market St. This safe place was particularly valuable during the times when gang-related violence escalated to never-before seen rates in our area. These early offerings also provided a space for the youth who would go on to establish the Latinos Unidos club and, later, the Latinos Unidos Siempre (L.U.S.) Youth Organization, to come together.
The Y.E.P. is undergoing an extreme make-over to formalize a “parallel family-system” strategy that develops long-term relationships with participating teens, provides individually tailored planning and tracking, and practices a non punitive approach to youth development.
This make-over is being undertaken to implement Best Practices as developed by other youth-serving organizations across the nation, in particular those with experience working with immigrants and youth of color.
Please, click here to view more details about new and upcoming project components.
Objectives:
Build leadership and resiliency skills
Develop positive identity and self-esteem
Reduce risky behaviors among middle and high school youth
The Y.E.P. is geared toward reducing high risk behaviors such as teen pregnancy, sexual initiation and sexual behaviors, and drug use; and improving sexual and reproductive health knowledge, employment, health and wellness, leadership, self-expression and academic skills. Most activities are offered year-round, after school (for at least three hours a day), and at various program sites.
The resulting impact of this project’s make-over is that low income and Latino children and youth in Marion-Polk Counties will graduate from college/university; that they will have access to affordable quality health care; that they have the skills necessary to secure stable employment; and that they are active members of their community.
This culturally-appropriate project is needed because of our current reality. Many youth feel the community at large doesn’t cater to their needs; in particular youth of color feel excluded because of their race or ethnicity. In addition, 8th Grade Latino students are behind students of other ethnicity in categories such reading and math by as much as 20 percentage points. Students graduating from our local school districts lack the academic skills to enroll in a four year college. Many Latino youth in our area, under 21 years old, have been exposed to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco; the majority of those exposed to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, lack the resiliency skills needed to refuse consumption of these substances.
According to the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA), the following are among factors contributing to the over-representation of minority youth in Oregon’s juvenile justice system:
- Inadequate preventative social services (and)
- Lack of culturally appropriate resources, placements and services
- Statutory Legal Mandates
- Bias of Decision Makers at the State and Federal level
Our primary focus is in reaching out to Latino children and youth, through age 25; however, all youth are welcome. We have elected to focus on Latino youth as our primary population because they make up a significant percentage of youth involved in gangs, or at risk of gang involvement, and other high risk behaviors (as described above). Our primary expertise is in providing culturally appropriate interventions. Such interventions, combined with advocacy and community education could help us to bring some light to the lives of children and youth in our area.
