Youth for Tomorrow CEO Dr. Gary Jones said all 25 immigrant children separated from their families at the U.S. Mexico border and housed at YFT have been reunited with their families.
Youth for Tomorrow, the nonprofit children's home in Bristow, Virginia, is still housing unaccompanied minors immigrants and American children needing trauma care.
Youth For Tomorrow received national attention this summer after the Trump administration separated children when their families crossed into the United States from Mexico seeking asylum. In Prince William County, some were frustrated that Youth For Tomorrow had not released more information about the status of the immigrant children housed there.
Pressure from outside groups resumed as the court deadline for reunification on July 26 came and went. The Alliance for Family Reunification of Prince William even held two vigils/protests in front of the property.
Friday, Jones told Bristow Beat that YFT wants to be as transparent as possible with the community. "We have nothing to hide," said Jones, saying the Department of Heath and Human Services asked them to keep most information confidential. They were also tasked with protecting the identities of the children who might be sought by gangs or sex traffickers.
When they did provide transparency, Jones believes the conditions children experienced at YFT helped to change the national conversation. Many saw children being kept in what looked like cages, but this was not the case at every facility, and it certainly was not that case in Bristow.
At Youth For Tomorrow, a nonprofit founded by former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs in 1986, children were reportedly housed in nice quarters and received the physical and psychological care. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner called it a "first rate facility."
CNN correspondent Brian Todd visited Youth For Tomorrow, June 22, while reporting for the The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.
Todd praised the staff at YFT, saying the employees were "working themselves to exhaustion in trying to turn around the fortunes of these children," may of whom had been physically and sexually abused.
Children were being housed in "clean, modest and comfortable rooms," said Todd with approximately three same-gender children to a room. In addition to homes the campus features a classrooms, a soccer field and a gym. Immigrant children were also kept separately from the American children who were there because they are troubled or experienced trauma in some form.
However, the immigrant children have also experienced significant trauma. According to Jones many of the girls have been the victim of human trafficking and sexual assault. Some are pregnant and give birth at the facility. In those cases mothers and infants are kept together in"Mommy and Me" rooms.
Jones called Bristow Beat to announce that they were able to reunite parents with their children.
On June 21, Youth For Tomorrow released the following statement on Youth For Tomorrow's cooperation with HHS.
Stacy Shaw of Bristow Beat has visited the Youth For Tomorrow campus although she has never in the dorms.
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