Opportunity Knocks (O.K.) Today

Activity Location:

"Vera Davis Center" - Venice.
610 California Avenue, right at the corner of California and Electric
(a block east of Abbot Kinney Blvd.)
Phone: (310) 574-1355

Steve is the Youth Advocacy Program (YAP) supervisor for O.K. today,
who will gladly provide you all necessary information.
Click on his image to send an email.
Please mention "Youth Advocacy Program" as your topic.
General:
YAP, or Youth Advocacy Program, has been around for about eight years. A joint creation of the L.A. City Attorney's Office and LAPD, the program embraces the OK Today mission of providing services to divert youth from delinquency and break the cycle of continued offenses that eventually lead to more serious crimes and incarceration. With YAP, "first time offenders" are offered counseling in lieu of an appearance in Juvenile Court.
How it works:
following an arrest (usually a few days later),
the detective making the determination to refer to YAP
will call the participating YAP agency for that LAPD division
to set up an intake interview for the youngster and parent.
Appropriate referral forms are then made part of the youth's arrest file
and forwarded to the YAP agency.
with the bottom section blank, to be filled out by the agency,
first to verify that the client-family did, in fact, show
for the intake as instructed (or not), and then, at the end of the required number of sessions (usually ten),
the agency sends back another copy of the form indicating
that the client did (or did not) successfully complete the program.
with the Juvenile Justice System and there is no official "record"
(though, the arrest remains in LAPD computers
and will register as such if the individual is arrested again).
—an action that could theoretically lead to probation or detention
in a juvenile facility.
Some details:
The City Attorney has set the required number
This is no coincidence, since OK Today was closely consulted On the west side of L.A. (LAPD's West Bureau) OK Today case managers have offered either individual and/or group counseling
of YAP counseling sessions at ten and requires parent participation
in "parent education", similar to the basic format
of the OK Today model.
as the program was planned, with the City Attorney
using OK Today's Parent Education program and counseling/case management format
as the design selected for the program when it was implemented city-wide.
OK Today was and still is, the sole service-provider for YAP.
YAP clients are seen in each of OK Today's field offices
and at the Main Office in West L.A. and provide a steady flow
of clients for our Parent Education Program since the late 1980's.
to YAP clients with a consistent success rate
(no re-arrests in the 12 months following completion)
of around 90% (some years better!) for over ten years.
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