Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project

The Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP) is building a youth-led movement to end the practice of trying and incarcerating young people as adults and create a world without youth incarceration.  Through our work in the Philadelphia jails, YASP provides space for incarcerated young people to express themselves creatively and to develop as leaders both within and beyond the prison walls.  Through our innovative youth participatory defense hub and Healing Futures restorative justice project, we work with young people and families to decrease the harms caused by the criminal legal system and create community safety and accountability outside of that system. Young people who have been through the court system are at the forefront of YASP, leading the movement to keep young people out of jails and prisons and to create new possibilities for youth around the city. Our primary campaigns are focused on stopping the prosecution of youth as adults, ending cash bail, and abolishing youth incarceration.