Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Research Banditos
3 Springs Research Project-Active
Che Gookin:
She's gonna be doing some extensive re-working on that post to update it due to changing conditions. Mine looks good though.
kevo.. go ahead and post up the revision hurrikayne did on mine. Looks good to me.
kev (antiWWASP.com):
yessir masta seh... ;D
Che Gookin:
--- Quote ---I don't have any pics, i will share the memories of, among other things:
1) one-manning the gott in the rain from dining hall to the campsite in the rain, then eating frozen hot dogs with canned peas and carrots on the side
2) waiting for an oppositional buddy or NGM in the blistering cold or parching heat countless times
3) having disgusting, mildewed clothes after flipping over during the canoeing trip
4) using the privy (enough said)
--- End quote ---
Kathy:
==================================================
Youth Services shares rise on acquisition -
Owings Mills firm buying Ala.-based Three Springs; Stock
price climbs 14%; $27 million deal could boost revenue by more than
a third
==================================================
Sun, The (Baltimore, MD)-April 17, 1996
Author: SUN STAFF, Jay Hancock
Wall Street found more reasons to love Youth Services International Inc. yesterday, as the Owings Mills company announced an acquisition that would boost revenue by more than a third. The news propelled its stock price upward by 14 percent.
Youth Services agreed to buy Three Springs Inc., which is based in Huntsville, Ala., and runs programs for emotionally troubled adolescents. Three Springs operates 13 facilities across the Southeast and is best known for its ``therapeutic wilderness'' program.
Fast-growing Youth Services runs centers for juvenile delinquents across the country. Its executives signed a letter of intent to buy Three Springs for 800,000 shares of Youth Services stock, worth about $27 million yesterday.
Financial analysts praised the deal as one that would extend Youth Services' reach, add to its correctional tools and boost profits almost immediately.
``If they took over an operating facility in the past, they would delete it and put in their own program,'' said Dennis Moran, who follows Youth Services for financial house A. G. Edwards in St. Louis. ``[Three Springs] has a program that works. They've picked up a growth company that they don't have to turn around.''
Three Springs' management will stay on, and Youth Services is expected to add its wilderness program to its treatment menu.
Youth Services stock, which could have been had for $8.25 a share less than a year ago, popped by $4.25 yesterday to close at $34.25, a new high.
``It's a good acquisition. It's really going to solidify their market position in the Southeast as one of the major players,'' said William Bavin, who follows the company for Baltimore financial house Ferris, Baker Watts. ``It ought to add a decent amount to earnings.''
Youth Services earned $2.2 million on $53.1 million in revenue for the year ending June 1995. The Three Springs deal is expected to add another $20 million in revenue.
Youth Services said the acquisition would boost earnings, but didn't specify how much.
Even so, at 54 times this year's estimated earnings per share, Youth Services stock is expensive even by the inflated standards of today's market. One explanation: It is being discovered by Wall Street.
``YSI is getting on the map,'' Mr. Moran said.
In recent weeks, Genesis Merchant, A.G. Edwards and NatWest Securities all assigned financial analysts to the stock, nearly doubling the coverage and raising Youth Service's profile among mutual funds, pension funds and other deep-pocketed investors seeking the next hot growth company. Genesis, Edwards and NatWest all gave Youth Services ``buy'' ratings.
Wall Street has reason to be interested, Youth Services' fans say. It is the biggest company in what some measure as a multi-billion dollar industry, but its 1995 revenues weren't even $54 million.
Law enforcement agencies increasingly are hiring contractors like Youth Services for youth corrections work. And another trend may help the company even as it hurts society: The number of juvenile delinquents is expected to grow, as baby-boomers' kids move into their teens.
Three Springs has a capacity of about 500 beds. Youth Services treats about 4,000 youths at 19 facilities in 12 states.
If it goes through, and analysts expect that it will, the acquisition will add to Youth Services' facilities in Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia and introduce the company to Alabama and Georgia. Youth Services recently completed the buy of a Tampa, Fla., facility that is expected to add about $10 million in annual revenue.
At almost eight times Three Springs' annual cash flow of $3.5 million, its $27 million price tag is ``a little high, but it's probably worth it,'' Mr. Bavin said.
Pub Date: 4/17/96
Edition: FINAL
Section: BUSINESS
Page: 1C
Kathy:
==================================================
PULLING THE WEIGHT
-
GIRLS' WILDERNESS PROGRAM TEACHES CONSEQUENCES ==================================================
Richmond Times-Dispatch-December 8, 1996
Author: Kathryn Orth
;
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
Six months ago, Elizabeth was a teen-ager out of control. She used drugs and struggled with anorexia and bulimia. Her parents had no influence over her.
Now Elizabeth, not her real name, lives at the New Dominion School in a wilderness living program for troubled girls.
She sleeps outdoors every night, regardless of the weather, in a shelter she helped build. She works hours every day with saws and shovels, cutting firewood or building shelter frames. Televisions and radios are banned.
She and her tentmates light their wood stove only for a short time at dawn, to make getting up and dressing a little more comfortable. She works for the privilege of attending academic classes.
It was a difficult adjustment, but Elizabeth, 15, has come to be grateful to her parents for bringing her to the school.
"If I weren't here, I'd probably be dead," she said.
Privately founded in 1976 as a wilderness school for boys, the New Dominion School was bought two years ago by Three Springs Inc. of Huntsville, Ala. The girls' division was added in March. Similar schools exist around the country, mainly in the West.
It is the only wilderness living program for girls in Virginia. Virginia Baptist Hospital runs a wilderness living program for boys.
Director Chris Yates has been with the school since 1976.
"This (program) is to help girls who have had emotional problems that have resulted in destructive and dangerous behavior, to help them get that under control and establish positive thinking that becomes positive action," he
said. The program's philosophy is that hard work, being outdoors and cooperating with a group will help a child feel better about herself and grow, Yates said.
Twenty-five girls live at the school. Of those, five are from other states. The school will eventually handle about 45. Several were sent to the school by their parents and the rest by social services agencies, he said.
The girls are divided into three groups. Each group lives with counselors in tent shelters built by the group and is responsible for keeping its area clean, for cutting its own wood for the campfires and wood stoves, and for conducting work projects. The girls are building a larger tool shed for the shovels, rakes and axes that they use every day for their projects.
One of the school's guiding principles is that actions have consequences, Yates said.
"They learn fast (that) if they don't cut the wood, they're going to be cold," he said.
If a girl shirks a duty, the group may call a meeting.
"The group would make it clear that a girl is not pulling her weight. Parents don't have that one in their bag of tricks," Yates said.
The tent shelter that Elizabeth sleeps in is home to four girls and a counselor. The girls cut the logs for the tent's posts and side rails and constructed the raised gravel floor.
The girls stick to a strict daily schedule. Girls assigned as cook's helpers and servers rise at 6:15 a.m. and report for work in the dining hall. The others may sleep until 6:40.
Chores begin at 7:10. The girls clean the privy, rake the trails and clean the campfire pits. After breakfast at 8, they check out tools for the day's work project. Elizabeth's group has been building an eating tent in their campsite area.
Tents and personal areas are inspected daily. Elizabeth is proud of her orderly "p.a." -- personal area.
"Here's my shoe line," she said, showing off the neat row of work boots, rain boots and dress shoes lined up under the cot. "Our shoes have to be lined up with the edge of the bed."
The cot is made up with tight hospital corners. Blankets and a heavy sleeping bag are folded at the end, with the folded edges of the blankets uniformly facing the end of the cot.
Her foot locker is Spartan, but very neat.
"Once a week, if we pass inspection, we get to go on `night out.' Three times a month we go to church," Elizabeth said.
The outings are simple. The group shops for food for the two days a week that they cook for themselves, then attends a movie or goes bowling.
The daily routine continues with more outdoor work, school indoors if a girl has reached some of the personal goals she set when she arrived, and a shower at 4 p.m. before supper.
"If we don't finish our work projects, we don't get to eat up at the lodge," Elizabeth said.
Each evening the girls gather around a campfire for a group meeting. They deal with any problems that have come up during the day and get feedback from the group on how they are doing.
Each girl sets goals when she arrives. The group judges when the goals are met.
Elizabeth's first goals included being honest about how she was feeling, taking responsibility for her actions, not being being manipulative and getting her personal area cleaned up on time and with pride. After two months, the group judged that she had met those goals, and she set a second set.
Among those goals were choosing two people a day and going out of her way to help them, and leading by example. When they were met, she "earned her crest."
"It's like a badge. I earned my crest on Oct. 18. They say this big speech and then say `Elizabeth, come up here and get your crest,' " she said.
Among the privileges given with the crest are attending school and going on home visits. Since earning her crest, Elizabeth has been allowed to take one hour of English and one hour of geometry every day in the school rooms at the lodge.
There is no set term of enrollment and the girls do not know when they may be judged ready to go home.
"We talk about goals and solutions rather than length of stay," Yates said.
Elizabeth is comfortable with the routine at New Dominion and proud of her accomplishments, but when her mother left her at the school she felt abandoned, angry and lonely, she said.
"I was messing up really bad (at home). I was on drugs. I wasn't listening to my mom. She tried to help me and I pushed her away. She had taken me to so many shrinks, I was actually `shrinked out.' I realize now that it was as hard for my mom to leave me here as it was on me. It's taken me a while to know that people care about me," Elizabeth said.
For now, Elizabeth is taking it one goal at a time, working with her group and looking forward to adding an hour of biology to her daily academic schedule.
"I think this place works better than detention homes or shrinks," she said. "I've learned a lot and I still have a lot to learn."
Edition: City
Section: Area/State
Page: C-1
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