Thanks to this organization, children in foster cares can have a future

09 December 2021

According to the data by the Tennessee Department of Children Services, there are about 8,000 children in the state in foster care. Of these, 350 are awaiting adoption.

One of the non-profit organizations that has been caring for children for 35 years is Youth Villages.

“Their role is to help children with mental, emotional and behavioral problems from every point of life and to get them reintegrated back into society,” said Lydia Miller, Donor Engagement Coordinator at the center in Memphis. “Also helping them overcome or learn how to cope with their trauma, emotional physical abuse that may have happened to them as well as disabilities.”

Miller has been volunteering with Youth Villages for 5 years and in June she got her current job. “I work with volunteers. I'm going to train them, I'm going to interview them, and then figure out how do I convert those volunteers to donating and fundraising later on or to doing more with our kids,” she said.

This organization has centers in 23 states, with an 88% success rate. It is characterized by its variety of programs, adaptable depending on the child's needs. In West Tennessee, it provide 6 programs : Intercept, which helps families to prevent the need for foster care; Lifeset, which helps young people to integrate into the adult world; and theraphy, Foster Care, Adoption, Crisis Services 24 hours a day, and Residential Treatment Programs. “We only have residential programs in Memphis, Atlanta, Georgia and then Nashville,” said Miller.

There are 4 centers in Memphis. One of them is the Rose Center for Girls. There are different levels of restriction to residential, depending on various factors.

“We don't control or have any say over what child comes to us. It depends on what DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) puts down,” she said. “So essentially, there's like a docket on every single child that tells us their behaviors. What they have done, diagnoses, medical needs, all of that. Depending on that file, we evaluate what facility level or location they should go to.”

The highest level, level four, is intended for children with more severe behaviors or more serious medical needs. Level three gives a little more freedom; the children are out alone without fear that they can escape. Then level two and one happen with the reintegration into society.

Rose Center is a level four. “It is specifically for girls, between 7 to 18, but also for transgender youth, nonbinary youth,” she said. The girls who come to the center are usually have alcohol or drug problems in the family, have been abused, or the parents are in prison.

Photo 1. One of the swings the kids have. By Lydia Miller

The main goal, said Miller, is for the children to return to their family; “If DCFS feels like the family can rehabilitate and get control back over their child, she / he will comeback with them.” The goal is for the children to be there for no more than 6 months, and the usual average is 6 months to one year. They have group and individual therapies, life skill groups, and activities to get out of the center just to “hang out with individuals in the community like them.”

“We do also have a different program called In-Home, so before a child ever goes back home, we will try to get the parent paired with an in-home therapist who will help prepare them for the return of their kid,” she said.

There are currently around 400 children in the various residential centers in Memphis according to Miller. However, most of the kids that they serve are not from Memphis, not even West Tennessee. “We do get quite a few from East Tennessee, like Knoxville, but I had a kid from Mexico. I’ve also had kids from California, Chicago, Florida, from Missouri as well,” she said. The reason for this is that many times children from other states have already gone through different centers and got a recommendation to come to Memphis. “We're really well known in child welfare, and so they will recommend that they come to us and then we will serve them,” she said.

Miller remains optimistic, and she thinks the organization is improving. “This year we are starting a new program called ‘Memphis Allies’, which is specifically to help with gun violence. We have also started programs with legal organizations, specifically with law offices, to provide pro-bono services for children who have first offenses who are then labeled as felons for the rest of their life.” She ends by saying that it is true that there is still a great stigma behind, seeing these children broken by all they have suffered, and that many people do not have patience with them.

Reagan Casey is an Army ROTC junior student from the University of Memphis who volunteered at the Rose Center for Girls. She went there one afternoon to play with the children along with other students. “One of the girls asked me if I was adopted, and when I said no, she started telling me about her parents,” she said. “But Ms. Lydia interrupted her and said we couldn't ask the kids personal questions or let them ask us anything.” She liked the experience, but she said she could never work there. “I think she would get me too emotionally involved; it seems like the girls have been through a lot.

Photo2. Reagan Casey, second from the right with more volunteers. Photo by Katrina Martin