Youth Villages’ National Impact
Strategy 2013-2017
Radically Improving Outcomes
for Children in Crisis by Building
Strong Families and Transforming
the Systems that are Failing Them
A Five-Year Plan to Expand Youth Villages’ National Impact
Every year in America, six million children — 1 in 20 — come
to the attention of state child services workers.1 And each
year, a quarter-of-a-million of these children are removed
from their families…most because the family has stopped
functioning effectively.2
In many cases, the state simply has to intervene for the child’s
safety. The United States spends more than $23 billion each
year raising these 550,000 children2 — often using approaches
that fail to reflect what best helps children and what strengthens
families. Besides being costly, the results are poor. Separated
from their families, children are at the mercy of an overwhelmed
system where they typically experience long institutional stays
and a revolving door of multiple placements. As young adults,
many experience poverty, homelessness and incarceration. The
overwhelming cost of lost productivity and wasted resources
produced by this approach is unacceptable.
Neither our children nor our country can afford business as usual.
“The problem is that most child welfare
agencies are not oriented around
returning children to permanent
families—and their funding does not
lead them to prioritize this goal.”
— THE NEW YORK TIMES, 2011
Youth Formerly in State Custody
vs. General Population
“Midwest Evaluation of Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth,”
University of Chicago, 2007.
General Population (age 21)
80
Youth Formerly in State Custody (age 21)
70
Youth Villages has spent 25 years pioneering an
approach that is measurably better for children
and their families and provides a remarkably
better return on investment for those who fund
these services (both public and private). The
organization is undertaking an important national
impact strategy to bring this powerful approach
to more children and families in communities
across America.
67%
60
50
49%
48%
36%
30
23%
23%
Failing Systems
12%
America is slowly — too slowly — coming to terms with an
alarming truth. As our system addresses a child’s immediate,
short-term safety needs, we are often handing that child a future
of poverty and insecurity. It is becoming increasingly clear that
moving a child into the foster care system often addresses one
social problem by creating another.
40
ECONOMIC
HARDSHIP*
ARRESTED
20
11%
HS DROPOUTS
10
UNEMPLOYED
0
*Economic hardship is defined as experiencing one of the following conditions: not
enough money to pay rent; not enough money to pay utility bill; gas or electricity
shut off; phone service disconnected; or evicted.
www.youthvillages.org
A Data-Driven Solution
State System Transformation
In the early ‘90s, Youth Villages began to explore ways to address
the long-term negative results common with children who spent
time in state custody. The goal was to find a way to deliver
lasting, positive impact for children — the kind of care that works
for a quantifiable majority of troubled children. Youth Villages
developed an outcomes-based approach called Evidentiary
Family Restoration® that began to deliver unprecedented results.
In 1995, Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services was
facing a perfect storm of the challenges confronting child services
programs nationally. Mounting legal investigations and class-action
lawsuits over its care of children and an expanding budget deficit
made substantial change seem unreachable. The number of youth
in state custody was expanding rapidly.
Children Served by Youth Villages
24 Months After Program Completion
100
“We had to convince the state they should
not be buying beds; they should be buying
outcomes, positive outcomes.”
– Youth Villages CEO, Patrick W. Lawler
80
82%
82%
85%
WITH
FAMILY
CRIME
FREE
IN SCHOOL
OR
GRADUATED
60
40
Confronting the crisis head on, the state engaged Youth Villages to
provide a continuum of services — including highly effective and
cost-saving in-home offerings. The state was able to fund services
using Title IV-E and Medicaid waivers and went on to bring Youth
Villages in as a reform partner.
Tennessee has since:
• Safely reduced the number of children in state custody by 40%
• Achieved a maltreatment recurrence rate less than half the
national average3
20
0
For Youth Villages, it quickly became clear that helping these
children — especially the toughest situations often written off as
lost causes — meant restoring a strong family support system
around the child. While many of these families seem far from
perfect, Youth Villages’ intensive work in the home helping families
develop the tools, resources and supports needed to safely raise
their own children produces measurably better results. Turns out,
families vastly outperform the child services system when it comes
to long-term positive outcomes for children.
Youth Villages’ EFR approach has resulted in a vast improvement
in the depth and sustainability of positive outcomes. In addition,
Youth Villages creates economic benefits for state payers, with
intensive in-home services costing approximately a third the
cost of traditional approaches. Intensive in-home services cost
on average $110/day compared with residential rates of $330/
day, and the length of stay is typically one-third that of residential
treatment.3 Youth Villages’ research shows that up to 60%
of youth in state custody could stay safely with their families
and be helped effectively with intensive in-home support that
strengthens the family.
• Become able to safely reunite 70% of served youth with their
families. The rate of youth in out-of-home care continues to
decline faster than the national rate.4
Rate of Youth in Out-of-Home Care
Tennessee vs. National Average
Tennessee Rate of Youth in Out-of-Home Care
National Rate of Youth in Out-of-Home Care
Rate of Youth Receiving Youth Villages’ Services in Tennessee
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
“Tennessee and Youth Villages Common Knowledge Case Study,” Casey Family Programs, June 2010.
www.youthvillages.org
A Perfect Opportunity for a Better, Scalable Approach
Americans are beginning to demand measurable positive results
from both public dollars and private support — a national movement
calling for measurable impact in social programs has growing
momentum. Recent passage of federal Title IV-E legislation will
allow up to 30 state waivers over the next five years. These waivers,
along with other new funding initiatives, provide much-needed
flexibility, replacing funding streams that further perpetuate the
status quo. The repurposing of existing dollars to support successful
outcomes-driven solutions like Youth Villages’ provides an enormous
opportunity to finally address long-standing problems that plague
our communities.
“Imagine if we could help every child in
their community? Youth Villages tells us
it’s possible.”
– White House Domestic Policy Council Director
Melody Barnes
Following two consecutive successful strategic growth initiatives
(2005–2012), Youth Villages is primed to deliver even greater impact
nationally. While increasing the size and scope of its work threefold
during this time (from 1,410 youth per day in four states to more than
4,000 per day in 11 states and D.C.), Youth Villages not only scaled
this important solution, but actually increased its overall success
rates from 81% to 84% during this high-growth period.
Youth Villages has made significant strides in scaling its model
but there are still significant gaps in service, leadership and
influence to address. Based on its experience and commitment
to continuous improvement, Youth Villages knows it must close
these gaps to achieve a presence as deep and influential in other
states as it has in Tennessee.
Over the next five years (FY13-FY17), this will require Youth
Villages to:
1. Build strong organizations in key states that can achieve the
kind of systems transformation that has occurred in
Tennessee by:
• Supporting critical leadership investments in high-potential
states
• Pursuing strategic opportunities, such as mergers and
acquisitions, to deepen partnerships with states
2. Clearly establish the Evidentiary Family Restoration
approach
in government, academic and youth services circles as the
best approach for addressing the needs of vulnerable young
people across the nation. This will occur by:
®
• Strengthening the evidence base and further validating a strong
return on investment via randomized control trials
• Driving the national conversation about the benefits of
supporting “what works” with children’s mental and
behavioral health services
3. Strengthen the national organization by:
• Increasing national business development/government
relations, strategy and fundraising bandwidth
• Expanding leadership/staff development initiatives
These efforts combine to provide Youth Villages a powerful platform
to influence what policy makers, judges and youth advocates
believe is possible, creating the foundation integral to the systems
improvement achieved in Tennessee. Most importantly, Youth
Villages can serve as a national model for how troubled youth and
families should and can be served successfully in our country.
“... Youth Villages is one of the strongest and most effective youth programs the
Foundation has ever seen.”
— Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, 2005 Due Diligence Report
www.youthvillages.org
Now is the Time
To further leverage these opportunities and build on the momentum
created through prior successes, Youth Villages is undertaking a new
$100 million national impact strategy called YV 3.0. While the overall
growth rate of services for FY13-FY17 is not as aggressive as prior
plans, the velocity with which system transformation is being sought
provides even greater opportunities for more kids and families to
receive high-quality, outcomes-focused services across America.
Phase I (representing $45 million) of the campaign will support
further growth of the Youth Villages approach into more homes,
communities and states. Phase II (representing the remaining
$55 million) is a sustainability phase that preserves powerful
programming that helps youth achieve long-term success.
We have momentum,
but we need your help.
Join our force —
a force for good,
a force for change,
the force for families.
Youth Villages.
End-of-investment milestones include:
• Increasing daily service capacity from 3,865 in FY12
to 4,840 in FY17
• Increasing total youth served by 92% and effecting system
transformation in three-to-five high-potential states
• Increasing youth served outside of Tennessee from 41% to 59%
• Identifying two or three new states for expansion opportunities
• Sustaining an 84% success rate for youth at
one year post-discharge
• Leveraging philanthropic investment 9x with public funding
The negative outcomes for troubled children — incarceration,
homelessness, poverty — are reaching epidemic levels and
replicable solutions are hard to find. States are facing fiscal crises
of unprecedented severity, causing reductions in services to some
of the most vulnerable children and families. These cuts to child
welfare with no change to the approach are likely to produce even
poorer results and higher costs.
Youth Villages seeks committed partners to join
this movement to radically improve outcomes
for children in and out of state custody, adding
accountability to the systems that serve them
and shifting the nation’s focus from warehousing
troubled children to actually helping them.
Connect with us
www.facebook.com/youthvillages
Youth Villages has been recognized by Harvard Business
School, U.S. News & World Report and the White House
as an organization with “innovative, promising ideas
that are transforming communities.”
1) Child Maltreatment 2009. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/index.htm
2) The State of America’s Children. Children’s Defense Fund, 2010.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-of-americas-children.pdf
3) Tennessee Department of Children’s Services Case Study Review. Youth Villages, 2005. http://www.youthvillages.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ZyfsEoY0_Jk%3d&tabid=250
4) Tennessee Child Welfare Outcomes Data Report. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://
cwoutcomes.acf.hhs.gov/data/downloads/pdfs/tennessee.pdf
www.twitter.com/youthvillages
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Founded in 1986, Youth Villages is a leading national nonprofit dedicated to providing the most effective
local solutions to help emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully. We
help more than 20,000 children and families each year from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. Youth
Villages’ Evidentiary Family Restoration® approach involves intensive work with the child and family, a focus
on measuring outcomes, keeping children in the community whenever safely possible, and providing unprecedented accountability to families and funders.
Youth Villages is accredited
by the Joint Commission.
www.youthvillages.org
All contents ©2013 by Youth Villages, Inc.
with all rights reserved.