Celebrating 45 Years and Counting…
Hope For Youth is thrilled to celebrate 45 years of service to the children and families of Long Island. Fueled by the passion and vision of Nassau County Family Court Judge Elizabeth Bass-Golding, HFY was established to provide community-based alternatives for youth in the child welfare system. HFY has a rich history and has made significant contributions to improve the landscape of the social welfare system. The Honorable Elizabeth Bass-Golding successful championed legislation to ensure community-based services were available for all youth in the child welfare system. Dr. David Hegarty, our distinguished leader, has committed over 30 years of his career to the agency. He began as a group home manager and now serves as the Executive Director/ CEO.
We opened our doors in 1969 with a single therapeutic boys group home and today we operate four group homes. Our residential service reach includes over 50 certified foster homes and our specialized Family Ties program. Family Ties is the only program of its kind in downstate New York. The program provides residential care for sibling groups that have been removed by Child Protective Services from their homes due to neglect or abuse. Our team of caring child care and therapeutic professionals helps to reduce the trauma associated with such a removal. Together they work towards reunification goals with the family or alternate placement. Our Suffolk County Intensive Management program is a preventive program that seeks to prevent out-of-home placement by working closely with the families to address core mental health or social challenges and to meet unaddressed needs.
In addition, HFY quickly realized that there was an overlap and linkage between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The agency took action and developed targeted services including our Non-Secure Detention, Diagnostic and the Community Reinvestment programs. All of these programs address the core issues that have driven a child to engage in negative behaviors and provide appropriate clinical services to help get the child back on a positive track for their future. Non-Secure Detention and Diagnostic are both short-term residential programs. HFY is the largest provider of juvenile justice services in Suffolk County.
Our growth did not stop there. Many of our children exhibited challenges with substance abuse and academics. HFY started the Multi-Dimensional Family Therapy program that is an evidence-based best practice to address the growing adolescent substance abuse issues on Long Island. This push-in therapeutic approach treats the child and the adult influencers in their life. Therapy is provided in the home, community and on site at HFY’s main office in an effort to address all the factors that impact the child’s negative behavior. HFY’s Learning Center is an on-site academic program that provides classroom instruction and tutorial support for the youth in our residential programs to ensure they keep pace with their peers.
HFY has had strong and consistent outcomes for all our programs and is the go-to-agency for challenging cases. Our dedicated team of 130 employees and our over 100 volunteers are the root of our success. The agency remains true to its mission of facilitating positive change in the lives of children, adolescents and families. We provide stable, nurturing, residential care, foster care, preventive and out-patient programs which educate, motivate and empower individuals to become self-sufficient and achieve their full potential. We will continue to strive to be the pillar of hope and strength for every child that is abused or neglected on Long Island. Their success is our most important goal. We look forward to the privilege of serving this population and the Long Island community for many years to come. Thank you to our supporters for making our work possible. We could not have done any of this without you.
To learn more about Hope For Youth visit our website at www.hfyny.org or connect with us on Facebook @HFYNY or Twitter @Hope_For_Youth.