Who We Are

Makarios Youth Prevention Project was founded by seven community members, residing in Phoenix, Arizona. Several within this group were formerly incarcerated or at some point were justice involved. Through their shared experiences and on-going concern for youth within their neighborhoods, predominately children of color, this group set out to create an organization which worked directly with preventing our children from entering the criminal justice system.

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Makarios, meaning blessed or fortunate is not seeking to be a typical leadership  or education program, nor does it wish to feed the anger with the systemic and institutionalized causes of juvenile crime. Rather, Makarios seeks to address youth prevention authentically by going into the community and schools with a “Keeping It Real” approach, speaking to kids in their language and on their level to hear their perceptions of causation and what their immediate needs are. From there, the Makarios vision is to function as a resource and education center capable of addressing immediate needs, connecting children and families to services, and empowering children to pursue vocational, educational, professional, and entrepreneurial paths as an alternative to gangs and the “easy money” of drugs and the streets.