"It's not a matter of where you stand but in what direction you're headed." — Unknown

Startled out of a deep sleep, I look around to see what woke me up. It takes a moment for the fog to seep from my mind, but then I hear it again, and all the pieces fall into place. It’s happening again. There are people outside my house, obviously drunk, loudly talking and yelling to one another. I roll over, feeling frustrated. If I confront them I will only become angrier, and I am already having trouble returning to sleep. And yet this cycle happens all too often. Isn’t there something I can do?

If this sounds all too familiar, you are not alone. West Chester has been plagued with such incidents, and they inspired the formation of the Young Adult Community Conferencing program. The number of cases of public drunkenness, noise violations, disorderly conduct, and underage drinking is disproportional to the size of the town. After Magisterial District Judge Gwenn S. Knapp had seen countless cases such as this she began to research alternatives that better suit the needs of the victims and helped to reduce offender recidivism rate. Through a collaborative effort between Center for Resolutions and Judge Knapp, Young Adult Community Conferencing was born.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Young Adult Community Conferencing, please contact the Center for Resolutions at (610) 566 - 7710. You may also click on When? for the next Young Adult Community Conferencing (YACC) training session dates, and visit our Resources page for downloadable YACC flyers and brochures.