The Girls Center for Intensive Residential Treatment in Memphis is just one Youth Villages location benefiting from the $7.4 million grant from Microsoft.

Microsoft has awarded a grant of more than $7.4 million in software and technology to Youth Villages, one of the nation’s largest providers of help to children with emotional and behavioral problems and their families.

The grant is part of Microsoft’s YouthSpark initiative, which is designed to create opportunities for 300 million youth around the world. It will provide software and support on Youth Villages’ residential campuses, supply technology for young adults being helped through its transitional living program and improve the organization’s internal and external communications systems.

“Microsoft is one of our most important partners,” said Patrick Lawler, Youth Villages CEO. “Since 1997, their generosity has allowed us to provide the best computer technology to our kids. This grant means Microsoft’s total support of Youth Villages’ children comes to nearly $13 million, which has helped our youth learn computer skills and allowed us to support our staff with modern clinical records and office technology.”

Microsoft YouthSpark is a global initiative committed to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries over the next three years.

This companywide initiative includes company programs that empower youth to imagine and realize their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship.

The grant allows children receiving help at schools on Youth Villages’ residential campuses to use the latest Microsoft software and curriculum to improve their computer literacy and learn the fundamentals of word processing, spreadsheets, the Internet and presentations. Youth Villages’ residential campuses are located in Memphis and Linden, Tenn., Atlanta, Boston and Portland, Ore.

Young adults in the Youth Villages transitional living program in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi and North Carolina use computers powered by Microsoft to study for their GED certificates, apply for colleges, prepare resumes and search for and apply for their first jobs.

“Microsoft’s continued support allows us to do our best work for children and families,” said Anne Coggin, director of education at Youth Villages. “For our kids, the computer lab is a wonder, offering diverse learning opportunities and a ticket to becoming technologically literate, something that will be crucial for their success as adults.”

The grant also provides the technology to enhance internal and external communications systems for more than 2,700 Youth Villages staff members who perform critical functions each day, such as accessing medical records, documenting treatment plans and reporting to parents and referral partners. Youth Villages’ counselors, teachers and staff will help more than 20,000 children and families this year from 67 offices throughout the country.

“Through YouthSpark, we’ve made a commitment to provide opportunities for youth to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace,” said Marietta Davis, general manager of Microsoft’s Greater Southeast District. “The Youth Villages grant will give at-risk youth the technology and training critical to success in the technology economy. I’ve been so impressed with the organization that I joined its national board of directors last year.”

Patrick W. Lawler, Youth Villages CEO

Committed families – biological or adoptive – are often the only thing that can help heal children who have experienced repeated rejection, trauma and pain. Their unconditional love can change a child’s life forever. I have seen it happen over and over with children whose emotional and behavioral troubles improve with treatment but whose lives truly change only through the gift of family.

They are children like Nathan, who at the age of 9 caught up with me on a visit to one of our Memphis, Tenn., residential campuses. Nathan had a single question for me: “Will you find me a family? I need a  mom and dad.” The children we help are rarely that open about what they wish for, but I know Nathan speaks for virtually all of the children in this world who are waiting to be adopted.

Taking away the chance of adoption by American families condemns thousands of Russian orphans to lives in orphanages, without the hope of family. To top it off, Putin also is denying the adoption finalization of nearly 50 children who are already in the process of adoption now.  I cannot imagine the heartbreak these children and families are going through. To these children, stopping their adoptions means another abandonment, more broken promises and deeper psychological wounds. For their potential parents, their hopes and dreams of family are shattered.

Playing politics with the lives of orphaned children and parents hoping to start or grow their families is cold and misguided. Putin says he wants Russian families to step up and adopt more orphans. And they should! This is so important, because even with international adoptions many Russian children won’t find homes. There simply haven’t been enough domestic adoptions in Russia in the past to give hope for these children. Sadly, the situation is somewhat similar in the United States.

There are thousands of children like Nathan waiting to be adopted right now right here in America’s child welfare systems.  They are boys and girls of all ethnicities, backgrounds and ages. Some of them are given up at birth. Others, like Nathan, come into foster care after years of abuse or neglect, the death of a loved one who cared for them, a parent’s mental health problems, drug abuse or other family problems. Some come in sibling groups, others on their own. All of them want exactly what Nathan wanted: to have the chance to grow up with a loving family.

In the United States, adoption from foster care is mostly free, with many children also qualifying for ongoing subsidies to help adoptive parents care for the child financially.

The younger children are, the better their chance of being adopted quickly – here and in foreign countries. But, we’re also finding that teenagers and older children can have their dream of a permanent family come true.  We have children adopted just days before their 18^th birthday. After all, the need for family doesn’t end at some arbitrary age. Young people need someone to walk them down the aisle, come home to every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and be grandparents to their children later on. Family ties should last forever.

Having a loving family like Nathan does today is so powerful. At Youth Villages, we’ve helped more than 5,000 young people who have aged out of foster care without family through our transitional living program. We know that just having family support makes it more likely that Nathan will grow up to be a successful, independent adult. Young people who don’t have that need intensive help after age 18.

I believe there are few things more important than helping give children in Russia, the United States and anywhere else the chance to grow up in a loving family. No child of any country deserves to ever be used as a pawn in international politics and have their chance for family, for childhood and adult happiness denied.

Patrick Lawler is CEO of Youth Villages, a national child services nonprofit that helps emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families through its Evidentiary Family Restoration™ approach.

Happy Holidays from Youth Villages! Thank you for supporting our work as The Force for Families.

• Tennessee foster kids face new hurdles at 18
• Youth Villages pushes for expansion

The program began through the generosity of Clarence Day, The Day Foundation and other private donors. In Tennessee, the Department of Children’s Services has matched our private donations since 2006, allowing us to help more young people.

We are proposing expanding the program next year to help every eligible young person in the state. We believe our public/private partnership in Tennessee can become a national model and show what we can do in every state we serve. Youth Villages has pledged to donate $12 million over the next four years so we can expand the program to help every foster child in Tennessee who needs these services.

While former foster children nationally are more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment and incarceration, a report released today shows that young people in some states are achieving higher rates of success through a program that may save taxpayers more than $130 million in long-term costs.

The report gives 10 years of data on the Youth Villages transitional living program, which has helped more than 5,000 former foster children in Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee since 2000. The program is most often funded through public/private partnerships between Youth Villages’ donors and state child welfare agencies. In Tennessee, the program is also part of a randomized rigorous evaluation that may bolster today’s report and lead to evidence-based solutions for helping former foster children across the country.

The report details the outcomes of more than 5,000 young people who have participated in the program since 2000. Findings include:

• 84 percent of the young people who completed the program are successfully living independently or with family two years later.
• 77 percent report no involvement with the law two years later.
• 83 percent are in school, have graduated or are employed two years after completing the Youth Villages program.

“The TL program is a result of innovative financial partnerships,” said Patrick W. Lawler, Youth Villages’ chief executive officer. Since 1999, Youth Villages has invested $22.4 million in the program, including $6.5 million from its own employees giving through payroll deductions. In his lifetime, Memphis philanthropist Clarence Day contributed $7.5 million to help former foster children find success as adults. After his death, The Day Foundation gave a $42 million challenge grant to continue the program and support Youth Villages’ overall growth plans. The state of Tennessee has contributed $9 million toward the program over the past three years, and private donations are matched by the state in Massachusetts.

Using conservative cost figures for incarceration and probation services, Youth Villages estimates that states save $2.6 million for every 100 young adults who complete its transitional living program successfully. By cutting the national average for incarceration rates of former foster youth in half, savings add up to $130 million for program participants who achieved long-term success.

Angelica, above, is just one successful young adult for whom TL has made a huge difference. You can read her story, along with many other TL stories, on this blog.

Mark Courtney, senior researcher at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, is leading the study of the TL program conducted by MDRC, a national social service research group. The study is measuring the program’s effectiveness as compared to usual services in the community. Courtney is the principal investigator for the Midwest Evaluation of Former Foster Youth, the country’s most significant evaluation of youth who have aged out of foster care.

“The study of the Youth Villages transitional living program is one of the largest experimental evaluations ever conducted in the child welfare services field and the largest by far of a program focused on improving the transition to adulthood for foster youth,” Courtney said. “It will provide invaluable evidence to the field regarding ‘what works’ for foster youth.”

Researchers from MDRC already have begun one-year follow-ups with participants, with first findings due in 2015. The study is funded by the Edna McConnell Clark and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations.

The Youth Villages program provides specialists who help young people secure housing; pursue educational and employment goals; access health and mental health services; learn such independent living skills as budgeting, cooking, cleaning and shopping; and create and maintain healthy relationships with family and others.

Youth Villages continues to work with Tennessee and other states on public/private partnerships to expand and further support the transitional living program, with a goal of helping more young people who need the services.

Foster parents Bobby, right, and Johhny, left, with Jada, Chase and Joseph

If you have enough love in your heart for a child who desperately needs it, please help a child find the way home. Youth Villages provides training and support for foster parents in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Learn more at youthvillages.org.

Bobby’s day usually begins around six in the morning, preparing meals and getting the children and her husband, Johnny, ready for their day. To say her home is a whirlwind of activity for most of the day is an understatement.

For Bobby and Johnny, it’s a mission of sorts. They both had children from previous marriages, but their union was more than a simple marriage. It was the grand opening of their home.

“It wasn’t like ‘those are your kids and these are mine,’” Johnny said. “It’s all of us together. We’re all in it together.”

During the past four years, they’ve opened their home to more than 10 foster children, recently adopting three – Chase, 15; Jada, 8; and Joseph, 3. Both coming from abusive and neglectful childhoods, Bobby and Johnny decided their home was going to be a haven, a safe place for children who needed attention, care and love.

“I’ve always wanted to protect abused children,” Bobby said. “I wanted to help children who’ve been mistreated.”

Chase was removed from his home because of abuse and neglect. He was also physically and verbally aggressive. His first foster placement didn’t work well, but Bobby and Johnny were patient and Chase slowly transformed. He’s part of the family, and helps care for his younger sister and brother.

Joseph was born to a drug-addicted mother. He cried and wailed incessantly while his body weaned itself from the narcotics. He had to be soothed and held constantly. His sleep was erratic. Bobby and Johnny never wavered.

“We just held him and loved him,” Johnny said. “There wasn’t anything else we could do.”

There are no signs of those troubles now, as Joseph and his freshly cut Mohawk hairdo speed from room to room and down the hallway with his sister. He laughs and plays just like any other 3-year-old boy.

Bobby runs children to doctor’s appointments and other things. In addition to the adopted children, they’re still foster parents to three other children. She calls them all by pet names and maintains an unending supply of affection and energy. To nearly everyone who goes in and out their front door, they’re called Mamaw and Papaw. But there are still standards.

“Oh yes, we’ve got rules,” Bobby said. “We expect good grades in school, manners, and being respectful of adults and other children. They all have chores to do to help around the house. We expect them to mind.”

The children’s bedtime is usually around 8 in the evening. Bobby and Johnny end the evening cleaning and straightening up the circus of the previous 14 hours.

Most days, Bobby’s evening continues through to the wee hours of the next day.

“Having foster children is like this: It’s a lot of news, and it can be bad one day, good the next day and then great another day,” she said. “It’s a lot of work and you have to be flexible. But we love all of them. It’s difficult sometimes when they leave – you want them to go home to their families, but you get attached and you’re sad to see them leave.”

And then the next morning begins the daily routine. Bobby and Johnny said they’d take in more children if they could.

The children are safe. They’re loved. Most important, they’re happy.

We first featured Robert and his family in a September 2011 blog post. Read it here.

About a year following the death of Larry Plaisance, the family continues to move forward and help teenagers. In fact, the family welcomed an additional youth.

Robert did well during his first year of college. He’s in the YV Scholars program, where Youth Villages pays his tuition and college costs provided he maintains certain academic and community service standards. He was also the first-ever freshman editor of his school newspaper. He even took a few upper-level courses.

The family is known for fostering young people who are tough to place. In fact, Devan, the family’s biological son, said his mother and father took the children no one else wanted. After Larry’s death last year, Devan returned home to help his mother, Nancy. And the youth in the home took to Devan, who runs a martial arts school in the area and is a mixed martial arts fighter and teacher.

Devan is also studying to become a firefighter. In addition to Nancy’s regular job, she’s also taken up making jewelry in her spare time. There’s quite a bit happening at the home and with the children. One of the children trains regularly with Devan and plans to compete soon. Another was recently awarded all-district honors in wrestling at his school.

She has a home, a job, two small children and takes business classes at a local college. She juggles all of it with minimal support.

Through assistance from the Youth Villages transitional living program, Stephanie has found a job and a good home for her two daughters. She has plans for a future.

“I had to grow up early,” she said. “Because of my responsibilities, I can’t do the things most 18-year-olds do, and I don’t want to.”

Stephanie was placed with her children in foster care following the death of her grandfather. She didn’t have a good experience in foster care, and after turning 18, was recommended for Youth Villages’ transitional living program.

Because her children were in state custody with her, she needed to provide a permanency plan and go through a 90-day home trial.

“I was extra motivated to do it on my own,” Stephanie said. “I was ready to get out of the foster home and find my own home.”

Stephanie found an apartment and learned quite a bit while in the TL program.

She found a job after submitting more than 50 applications, got a driver’s license and vehicle, and learned about money and time management.

Youth Villages, through a grant from The Day Foundation, began a transitional living program in 1999, to help children like Stephanie get a good start on adulthood in the crucial years between ages 17 and 22.

Transitional living counselors help young people learn to deal with the minor and major problems that come with adulthood.

“She worked very hard to find the first job,” said Paige Keisler, Youth Villages TL clinical supervisor. “Because of the economy, it was very tough to find the first job, but she didn’t give up.”

Stephanie regained full custody of her children, and during the hearing, the judge praised her.

“The judge said Stephanie’s ability to maintain housing, complete her GED and maintain transportation at her age should be an example to parents in their 30s and 40s,” Paige said. “He told her and the court that her success would be the standard others would be judged by that day.”

Stephanie recently returned from Florida, where she participated in child development training for her job at a daycare facility. She’d like her own home and plans to continue her college education. She’s determined, but patient – she has a lot to do now but when she discusses her future, she gets more excited.

“I’ve always done things on my own – it’s what I’m used to. I’ve got a routine now where everything sort of falls into place,” she said. “I’m content now to see where things take me, but I want a home. I want to have my own business. It will happen.”

Cody, 12

Cody was able to attend his first Boy Scouts camp recently and looks forward to attending middle school, a long way from myriad residential centers, including Youth Villages’ Center for Intensive Residential Treatment and the Bartlett Campus.

“Cody’s a lot different now,” Mindy said. “He’s able to help out at home and is doing well in school.”

Cody, 12, has lived with his great-grandmother, Miss Beulah, since he was 5. She now has custody of Cody, who exhibited behavior issues from an early age. In addition to being physically and verbally aggressive, Cody coped with a difficult childhood through self-harming behavior, theft, substance abuse, school problems and other legal issues. He’d lash out when he didn’t get his way, whether at home or at school.

For years, Cody has been in and out of residential facilities, but they were ineffective in changing his behavior. Youth Villages seemed to work.

“Since Cody’s residential treatment, we were able to take what he learned from there and implement it in the home,” Mindy said.

And Cody responded positively.

“He gets along with his younger brother much better now,” Miss Beulah said.

“Youth Villages seemed to work best for him. They did more to help him than any other place.”

After Cody discharged from Youth Villages’ Bartlett Campus, he participated in Youth Villages’ Intercept intensive in-home program. Youth Villages’ goal is to return children to a less restrictive environment to continue their progress through intensive in-home services, with their family when possible, or therapeutic foster care when it is not. Intercept provides treatment to troubled children and families in their own homes at times convenient for the families.

All treatment is family-centered and includes strength-based interventions. Our comprehensive treatment approach includes family therapy, mental health treatment for caregivers, parenting skills education, educational interventions, development of positive peer groups, and extensive help for families and children in accessing community resources and long-term, ongoing support.

“Cody missed his family while he was in residential care,” Mindy said. “Sadly, he’s a child who’s been in and out of state custody so much, he knows what it takes to be stable in the home.”

Mindy, partnering with Brandi Jones, Cody’s transitional counselor, established a more structured environment for Cody, including using behavior charts with rules, rewards and consequences. His behavior changed at school, and he learned coping skills such as deep breathing to manage those times when his anger and frustration would formerly get the best of him.

He’s very energetic and strong-willed, which can create its own set of issues, but Cody’s learned to operate in a structured environment. He has chores to do at home, and works at turning his energy toward positive endeavors.

He recently purchased his own bicycle, then fixed it up and painted it himself.

He has a long way to go, but things are in place for Cody to grow and be successful. He’s even thinking about his future.

“I’d like to go in the military,” he said. “That way, I can travel and see other places.”

“Cody’s been through a great deal of trauma in his young life, and it will take some time for him to process and overcome some of those struggles,” Mindy said.

“But Youth Villages has stepped up with positive role models, as well as his scout leaders and his Big Brother.”

For contact information and more about Youth Villages specialized crisis services in Tennessee, visit youthvillages.org.

Youth Villages’ Specialized Crisis Services responder Cathy Witmer went to see the girl at their county’s justice center. When Cathy got there, she found the girl had several medical issues and a pending surgery. Cathy helped ensure the girl received proper treatment and care at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, and then responder Milly Douglas followed up with the child to get more information. During the course of nearly a week, the two responders and the crisis department monitored the girl’s situation and made sure her unique needs were met.

“That was not our usual type of crisis call,” said Milly, a former child abuse investigator. “It is a good example of how we work with partner agencies and work together to make sure decisions are made in the child’s best interests.”

Most of the time, crisis calls involve behavior problems or self-harming.

Throughout Tennessee, the Youth Villages Specialized Crisis Services staff provides assessment and evaluation of children and youth up to age 18 who are experiencing a psychiatric emergency. In February, SCS responded to more than 1,200 calls.

The responder’s assessment may include interviewing other children, family, extended family, community members, teachers, counselors and first responders – anyone who can provide salient information regarding the crisis. They also assess the child’s history and any factors that may have led to the crisis and how to avoid future issues. Also, the responders coordinate with other agencies and facilities to help ensure the child is placed in an appropriate environment, whether that is treatment at home, group therapy or counseling, or hospitalization.

The program employs more than 80 staff who work from 13 Youth Villages offices and satellite locations across the state to provide faster response times.