YOUNG OFFENDERS LEGAL AID AND REFORM ADVOCACY (YOLARA)
About Us
Young Offenders Legal Aid and Reform Advocacy (YOLARA) is a Kenyan non-governmental organization founded in 2020 to protect indigent children and youths in urban informal settlements from being pulled into the criminal justice system and cycles of organized crime
YOLARA was established on a simple but urgent conviction: a young person’s future should not be determined by the poverty of the environment they are born into. Yet for many children and youths growing up in informal settlements, opportunity is scarce, protection is limited, and the systems meant to safeguard them often intervene only after things have already gone wrong.
Without early support, vulnerable young people can become trapped in pathways that lead from marginalization to arrest, incarceration, and lost potential. Lives that could have flourished instead become defined by a single moment of survival, mistake, or circumstance.
YOLARA exists to interrupt this trajectory early.
We work with children and young adults, strengthening the systems of protection, support, and opportunity that allow them to build stable and dignified futures. Through community engagement, partnerships, and youth-centered interventions, we seek to ensure that children and youths growing up in difficult environments are not defined by those environments, but empowered to shape their own paths.
At its core, YOLARA’s work is about restoring possibility—ensuring that young people who might otherwise be written off too early are given the chance to learn, grow, and contribute positively to their communities.
Vision: A society where opportunity—not crime—is the most accessible path for young people in informal settlements.
Mission: To prevent the criminalization of indigent children and youths in informal settlements by expanding access to legal support, safe spaces, and economic opportunities.