ABOUT YOUTH VILLAGES

Every Child Deserves a Chance
At Youth Villages, we believe a stable family and strong support system can help any child succeed.
More than 30 years of helping children and families live successfully.
Youth Villages provides help for children and young people across the United States who face a wide range of emotional, mental and behavioral problems. We work to find solutions using proven treatment models that strengthen the child’s family and support systems and dramatically improve their long-term success. Youth Villages helped more than 30,000 young people and their families this year.
OUR SERVICES:
- Residential Treatment
- Intensive In-Home Treatment
- LifeSet
- Foster care and adoption
- Specialized Crisis Services and crisis support
Since 1994, our organization has tracked every child who completes a program and has recorded consistently high success rates. In 2018, 88 percent of the children are still living successfully at home with their families 12 months after completing their program.
As a leader in the field of children’s mental and behavioral 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.

We help children and families live successfully.
Our Values:
- Kids’ needs come first … always.
- Children are raised best by their families.
- We provide a safe place.
- We strive to achieve positive, lasting results.
- We are committed to our staff.
- We are each responsible for providing the highest level of service to our customers.
- We constantly improve our performance to achieve excellence.
- We create new programs to meet the needs of children, families and the community.
- We do what we say we do.

Youth Villages works with children and youth who have serious emotional, mental and behavioral problems.
While we help children from birth to age 22, the majority are between the ages of 12 and 17. Children come to us because of emotional and behavioral disorders, physical or sexual abuse, substance abuse, or suicidal ideation or attempt. Most of the children and youth we serve have multiple problems, which may include developmental or learning disabilities, co-occurring medical issues (such as medically fragile), severe acting out behaviors or past challenges with other programs or facilities.
Youth Villages also offers the largest program in the U.S. to help former foster and transition-age youth in the country, LifeSet. It is the only program for this population that has shown positive impacts in many areas of a young person’s life in a large, randomized controlled trial.
Learn more about admission requirements, including how to refer a child.
CEO Patrick W. Lawler leads officers and directors who supervise a staff of more than 3,000. The organization is guided by a volunteer national board of directors, chaired by James D. Lackie. In addition, there are local advisory boards in Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, and Middle and West Tennessee. A board of advocates also champions our work.

Patrick W. Lawler
Chief Executive Officer
Patrick W. Lawler is CEO of Youth Villages, a national leader in children’s mental and behavioral health, committed to building strong families, delivering effective services and significantly improving outcomes for children in child welfare systems across the country. Read More

James D. Lackie
Board Chair
James D. Lackie is a graduate in Finance (cum laude) from the University of Memphis (1976). He has been involved in venture capital and private equity investing during the last 30 years. He started his career in commodities futures trading with Cook Industries (1976-1978), Dunavant Enterprises (1978-1981), Refco (1981-1991), and Co-founder & Managing Director of The ESO Fund (1991-Present). Read More