Baltimore services agency acquires Alternatives for Youth and Families

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

In October 2009, the Board of Child Care, a Baltimore-based human services agency with a 135-year history of helping children in crisis, assumed oversight of Alternatives for Youth and Families, a nonprofit organization for Southern Maryland's at-risk youth.

The board finalized acquisition of the Charlotte Hall-based Alternatives for Youth and Families in August 2010.

The merger and acquisition was necessary, according to Board of Child Care President and CEO Thomas L. Curcio, because "a 35-year-old agency which has made remarkable differences in the tri-county area found it more difficult to operate [today] because of changing state regulations."

While the Board of Child Care provides financial resources and expertise, Alternatives for Youth and Families offers independent living and therapeutic group home facilities, creating what Curcio called "a seamless continuum of care," for youth in Southern Maryland and throughout the state.

Two new therapeutic group homes, Triad House for boys and Lighthouse for girls, will begin accepting referrals for placement this week.

Plans are in the works to build two group homes on the Eastern Shore, to be available for occupancy in July 2011. "The need is there," Curcio said.

According to Curcio, Alternatives for Youth and Families will retain its name and continue its 35-year mission of serving children and youth in need with few visible differences, although some structural changes have already been made to Alternatives for Youth and Families' management and daily operations.

One member of Alternatives for Youth and Families' board of directors, Lynda McDonald, has been appointed to the Board of Child Care; the rest of original board of directors is serving as an advisory group for the organization.

"We have re-engineered the management structure of the program in the three areas we're licensed for: therapeutic group homes, independent living and treatment foster care," Curcio said. "The staff has been enhanced and enriched. We have hired an entirely new staff, and trained all to meet and exceed Department of Human Resources and Mental Health Department regulations."

The new staff received training both at Alternatives for Youth and Families' Charlotte Hall offices and in Baltimore.

"Training is a major part of introducing staff to the culture," Curcio said.

CHRIS BASHAM