GekeVenn: YOUTH VILLAGES

Foster care in America is primarily managed by “child protective” state government agencies. Child care services are secured and reimbursed from corporate public-private partnerships. This has created a burgeoning foster care industry that profits when children are removed from their homes and families of origin. The federal government's $9 billion reimbursement of state funds paid into the foster care industry is what many call a perverse financial incentive to separate children from their biological families. (Starting in 2019, the Family First Act will reduce this funding and limit group home stays for children to two weeks.)

A prominent company in the foster care industry is Youth Villages, a private non-profit based in Memphis, Tennessee that provides foster care and residential treatment services for separated and troubled children. The company contracts these services to several state governments including Tennessee's Department of Children's Services.

There have been many allegations against Youth Villages of sexual abuse, sexual contact among patients, negligence, and failure to report violations. Oregon officials had to remove children from a Youth Villages facility in Clackamas County because supervision of the children was so low. The company eventually closed that facility.

Former congressman Chip Pickering has been an active lobbyist for Youth Villages, as was Mary Henson, his former legislative director. Note that in fiscal 2009, Georgia Representatives David Scott (D) and Phil Gingrey (R), and Georgia Senators Saxby Chambliss (R) and Johnny Isakson (R) earmarked a combined $243,000 to Youth Villages. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Youth Villages paid Pickering's lobbying firm $500,000 in 2009; Rep. Pickering then contributed $3,500 to Rep. Gingrey and $2,000 to Sen. Isakson.

This post begins a series of venns on prominent companies in the foster care industry and their overlap with the government that has enriched them at the expense of American children and their families.