Youth Villages expands to Oklahoma; Tulsa native leads intensive in-home program

Youth Villages, a provider of children’s mental and behavioral health services, has begun helping children and families in Oklahoma after opening an office in Tulsa Oct. 1.

Youth Villages Oklahoma will provide the Intercept intensive in-home services program to 40 children and families in Tulsa through a partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and the George Kaiser Family Foundation. Funding for the start-up of the Tulsa office is being provided by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

“We are excited about this new and innovative partnership between the George Kaiser Family Foundation, DHS and Youth Villages,” said DHS Director Ed Lake. “This is another opportunity to bring a nationally recognized agency with a proven program to Oklahoma to support our efforts in creating a comprehensive and effective child welfare system.”

Jessica Moore, a Tulsa native and resident, will lead the new office as regional supervisor. At Youth Villages, Moore has worked from locations in Dallas, Texas and Memphis, Tenn., as a family intervention specialist, residential counselor and clinical consultant. She is a licensed professional counselor. The Youth Villages Tulsa office will employ about 12 staff members; most will be family intervention specialists working with families of troubled children in their own homes an average of three times a week. Youth Villages’ staff is available 24/7 to the children and families they help, working around families’ schedules, meeting them before work or in the evening, when the whole family is together.

“I’m so excited to be helping my home community, the community where I live and grew up,” Moore said. “Youth Villages will be introducing intensive home- and family-based services designed to strengthen families and provide them with the tools and skills they need to parent children with emotional, behavioral and mental health issues effectively and to prevent or reduce the time a child spends out of the home for treatment.”

Moore grew up in Tulsa, graduating from Nathan Hale High School before earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Missouri Valley College and a master’s degree in Christian counseling from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Moore and her husband, Jamie, have two children, Bailey Grace and Caden James. Jamie Moore is pastor of Sequoyah Hills Baptist Church in Tulsa.

Founded in 1986, Youth Villages’ mission is to help emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully. This year, Youth Villages will help more than 22,000 children from 20 states and the District of Columbia through a wide array of programs, including intensive in-home services, residential treatment, foster care and adoption, transitional living services, mentoring and crisis services. The organization calls its approach Evidentiary Family Restoration, which focuses on providing intensive help to both the child and family in the home and offering measurable positive outcomes and accountability to both families and funders.

Youth Villages’ focus on strengthening families consistently produces an 80 percent success rate of children living successfully at home even two years after completing a Youth Villages program. Youth Villages has been recognized by Harvard Business School and U.S. News & World Report, and was identified by The White House as one of the nation’s most promising results-oriented nonprofit organizations. For more information about Youth Villages, visit http://www.youthvillages.org.

About the George Kaiser Family Foundation
GKFF is a charitable organization based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, dedicated to providing equal opportunity for young children in the community through investments in early childhood education, community health, social services and civic enhancement. Founded in 1999, the foundation invests heavily in expanding the availability of high-quality, early childhood education for low-income children in Tulsa County. GKFF also supports numerous health and human service organizations in the Tulsa area to reinforce its anti-poverty efforts. In addition, GKFF supports and develops projects in community health, female incarceration, civic enhancement and beautification in the City of Tulsa and participates in many other community initiatives. GKFF is a supporting organization of the Tulsa Community Foundation. As a supporting organization, GKFF has a stated mission of engaging in charitable activities that are consistent with the purpose of TCF. For more information about the George Kaiser Family Foundation, visit www.gkff.org.

About the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation is a global organization that seeks to ignite the passion and unleash the power in young people to create positive change for themselves, the Jewish community and the broader world. Schusterman pursues its mission by working collaboratively with others to support and operate high-quality education, identity development, leadership training and service programs designed to help young people cultivate their growth as individuals and as leaders.