Youth Advocacy Center, Inc.

Since 1992 Youth Advocacy Center’s (YAC) mission has been to help teens and young adults involved with the foster care and juvenile justice systems learn to advocate for themselves and take control of their lives. Youth Advocacy Center was founded on the belief that these youths have the desire, talents and potential to become participating citizens – to hold jobs, pursue education, play a role in their community, live in safe neighborhoods and raise their children to be educated and healthy. We help them transition to successful adulthood and independence.

We entered this work because as lawyers in family court, we saw first-hand the dismal outcomes for youth leaving the foster care and juvenile justice systems. The millions of dollars of services available failed to address teens’ own desires for a better future. We founded Youth Advocacy Center because we believed in the potential of all young people to succeed and believed that the community could play a role in supporting their success. Youth Advocacy Center created the Getting Beyond the System® Self-Advocacy Seminar based on our belief that we can empower young people intellectually and transfer responsibility to them as they transition from government systems to independence. Please visit our web site at www.youthadvocacycenter.org for further information.