Youth Project

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

Gay Men's Health Crisis' Youth Community Empowerment Program (YCEP) targets young people in the communities and social networks that are most highly at risk for HIV infection, principally Black and Latino teenagers of high school age who are gay or bisexual. YCEP is a "community level intervention" aimed at shifting norms and diffusing innovations through multiple programs targeted at different levels of the community. YCEP's "Leadership in Action" is an intensive, strength-based curriculum for a select set of youth clients built around training in essential life skills, positive social norms, healthy relationships, and healthy lifestyles. The YCEP "Drop-In Center" will support a much wider set of youth in developing skills, staying in school, finding their own voices, and learning to organize with their peers for lasting change. All YCEP activities will be supported by a Computer Lab. With GMHC's trained staff, the YCEP youth will develop social media (blogs, websites, and multi-media) and social marketing campaigns that will bring their experiences to an even larger community of interest. By reaching youths before they turn 18, the benefits of YCEP will move upward through population cohorts as the YCEP youth grow older and continue to influence their peers and others. NCA/NCF