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Our History

Celebrating 25 years of helping children and families live successfully

Founded in the merger of two residential treatment campuses in 1986, Youth Villages now offers a complete continuum of programs and services with one goal in mind: building strong families.

Whether it’s helping teens live independently upon aging out of state custody, restoring families through intensive in-home services, or providing temporary placements for children in crisis, Youth Villages is a dynamic force for families across the United States.

From the beginning, Youth Villages has worked to find and implement evidence-based treatment models that dramatically improve the chances of long-term success. Its research team obsessively collects data and measures outcomes to ensure their effectiveness.

As a leader in the field of children’s mental health, Youth Villages earns its status as one of the nation’s most promising results-oriented nonprofits, as recognized by Harvard Business School, U.S. News & World Report, and the White House.

Find out more about Youth Villages and its history by visiting our organization's timeline.

»	Timeline
»	History Videos

Youth Villages CEO Pat Lawler talks about the founding of Youth Villages in 1986 and our tremendous growth since in a series of short videos.

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Youth Villages is a private nonprofit organization dedicated to helping 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. Our 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 accountability to families and funders. The EFR approach produces lasting success for children with success rates twice that of traditional services at one-third the cost of traditional care.