Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH) is a Black-led, community-based nonprofit that works with teens and young adults in West and Southwest Philadelphia ages 15 to 24 who have been impacted by violence. With a special focus on those labeled as having violent histories, YEAH acknowledges teens and young adults as the experts of their own lives and prioritizes pushing back against oppressive systems.
YEAH Philly is evolving into a movement home for youth justice in Philadelphia. What began as a direct violence intervention program has grown into a full-scale engine for transformation combining community healing, research, and policy advocacy to change the systems that criminalize Black youth.
Our redefined mission and vision integrate the work of the Juvenile Probation Transformation Coalition, which aims to end probation as a form of surveillance and replace it with community accountability rooted in healing and care. Together, these components position YEAH Philly as a local and national model for how community organizations can lead structural change, not just service delivery.
This rebrand does not represent a departure, it’s an evolution. It recognizes that the only way to reduce violence and incarceration is to confront the systems that produce them. Through this new strategic direction, YEAH Philly unites advocacy, data, and direct service under one purpose: to build real safety for Black youth and reimagine justice entirely.