Teen on life support after assault at children's home

[wdtony]

It never ceases to amaze me how much money these "non-profit" orgs make. And executives pay themselves.

Barbara Condo (Founder of One Way farm)paid herself almost 85,000 dollars in 2005. In more recent tax records she has omitted how much she pays herself. I found this online, but when you read on the program's website, the tax report is much different looking and does not include this information.

http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf ... 06_990.pdf

vs.

http://www.onewayfarm.org/docs/2006_audit.pdf

One more interesting tidbit of information about Condo:

Barbara Condo grew up in Appalachian Kentucky before moving to Ohio. She had five children of her own, but always found room for more. With a powerful desire to help others, she created One Way Farm Children's Home located in Fairfield, Ohio in 1976, with $59.00 and a mission; to provide a home to the homeless. Initially she provided a home for adult parolees. In this loving atmosphere, her farmhouse was soon overflowing.

That seems to imply that she had at least 5 children while taking in adult parolees into the same farmhouse. This seems very irresponsible to say the least.

[cmack]

Thanks, wdtony, for all the research you're doing on this story. I think you are fairly local to the area so please keep us posted as the story develops. I'm especially interested in any news regarding the young victim's condition. Hopefully he'll experience a Christmas miracle and recover.

[cmack]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/day ... 03384.html

Teen remains critical after assault at group home

Suspect has no prior history of violence, Warren County Children Services says

By Hannah Poturalski, Staff Writer Updated 1:13 PM Friday, December 23, 2011

FAIRFIELD TWP. — A 16-year-old boy assaulted Monday night at a group home remains in critical condition at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, a hospital official confirmed today.

The Fairfield High School student was brutally beaten between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Monday at One Way Farm on River Road and has been hospitalized since late Monday after police received reports of the assault three hours later around 11:30 p.m., said Fairfield Twp. Police Chief Richard J. St. John.

A 17-year-old male is accused of punching the victim, throwing him to the ground — where he landed on his head — and laying on top of him before punching him repeatedly in the head, the chief said.

“We called it a fight but it really wasn’t much of a fight,” St. John said. “The arrestee just basically assaulted the victim.”

St. John said Thursday the teens, both residents at the group home, “were fighting over a flashlight that each one claimed was his.”

The suspect, a ward of Warren County Children Services, was arrested late Monday and is being held at Butler County Juvenile Justice Center on the felony charge of aggravated assault. A court date is set for Jan. 3.

Patricia Jacobs, director of Warren County Children Services, said the suspect in this case had been placed at One Way Farm at the end of November and that he had no prior history of violence. Prior to placement, the teenager was living with his family in Warren County and had no prior involvement with children services.

Jacobs said the suspect was the only youth placed at the facility by Warren County Children Services, which has occasionally placed children at One Way Farm over the course of many years.

“We try to make placements tailored to the needs of the child,” Jacobs said. “We try to constantly be assessing those placements because sometimes it’s not a good fit.”

Jacobs said the length of a youth’s stay in a group home such as One Way Farm is based on regular assessments of the child, reports from the treatment providers, and activities of the parents. She said it’s harder to place older teenagers that might have developmental problems.

“It’s kind of the nature of teenage boys, they have fights,” Jacobs said. “Places like One Way Farm don’t have kids with typical upbringings.”

Greg Elam, board president of One Way Farm, said fights of this severity are “rare events” at the facility. St. John said officers are called fairly often to One Way Farm, but mainly on reports of runaway juveniles.

St. John said Fairfield Twp. police have been dispatched to One Way Farm a total of 92 times since Jan. 1. In 2010, police responded 166 times to the facility. St. John said he’s unable to distinguish calls to the facility based on type of call.

St. John said he doesn’t have any information on the victim’s home life and where he is from. He did say the victim’s grandmother is his legal guardian.

St. John said the investigation is ongoing but no interviews are planned for Friday in the investigation. Detectives have interviewed witnesses and staff of the facility, St. John said.

St. John doesn’t anticipate any change in the charge against the suspect.

“Should the circumstances change as far as the condition (of the victim) we will consult with the prosecutor,” St. John said.

One Way Farm is non-profit organization licensed by the state to provide residential care 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. The agency has served about 8,500 children since 1976, according to its website. Earlier this year, One Way Farm was granted the 2011 Better Business Bureau Torch Award.

Jody Canupp, development director at One Way Farm, said the agency accepts children from nine Ohio counties, including Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties, but she declined to release the names of the other counties. According to the facility’s website, each of the male and female shelters have 20 beds available but Canupp also declined to release how many beds are currently filled.

When asked about the agency’s protocol for responding to fights, Canupp said, “I don’t care to answer that question,” and referred further comment to Fairfield Twp. police detectives.

Canupp said it is not state regulation to have medical staff on-hand. Canupp said about 30 people are employed at One Way Farm, an amount she said is above state regulation.

According to the agency’s financial statements, total income is about $1.5 million with more than $560,000 coming from children services agencies for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2179 or Hannah.Poturalski@coxinc.com.

[wdtony]

My god, 92 times and 166 times in less than 2 years. This program is getting more questionable as time goes on.

If this poor kid didn't have a past with social services or a police record, why was he institutionalized in a program that preaches the program as a last resort?

Thanks for posting this article, I hope the investigation turns up something if this program is hiding things.

[Ursus]

My god, 92 times and 166 times in less than 2 years. This program is getting more questionable as time goes on.

No shit.

If this poor kid didn't have a past with social services or a police record, why was he institutionalized in a program that preaches the program as a last resort?

Is it possible this place may be one of those "holding tanks" where kids get put upon removal from their families by social service agencies? It seems like these agencies have been getting more and more aggressive and taking some actions that are beyond the pale ... as far as what's in the best interests of the child is concerned.

[wdtony]

It probably could be a type of holding place used by social services. I am not familiar with the Ohio Cabinet's practices.

I think it is a bit weird what this woman said:

Jody Canupp, development director at One Way Farm, said the agency accepts children from nine Ohio counties, including Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties, but she declined to release the names of the other counties. According to the facility’s website, each of the male and female shelters have 20 beds available but Canupp also declined to release how many beds are currently filled.

When asked about the agency’s protocol for responding to fights, Canupp said, “I don’t care to answer that question,” and referred further comment to Fairfield Twp. police detectives.

So there are not 20 beds in this program, but a total of 40. And Canupp won't state her knowledge about protocol when it comes to fights. I would think the development director would be aware of all protocols.

[Ursus]

There is a disturbing amount of overly positive PR about this place. They must use the same marketing strategy that Boys' Town uses: crush the voices of complaint by rallying overwhelming community support behind the program's efforts to "save the children."

Don't get me wrong, maybe this all is "really for real," and I can then be safely labeled a dour suspicious ol' bear, but... I've known of folks who really have devoted their lives to endeavors of this ilk, and they don't get even a fraction of the press coverage or community service awards the founder of this place does. Ya gotta wonder, especially in Ohio, just how that comes to be.

I was also a lil taken aback to read how much of a fan of "tough-love" she is. Maybe she means something different by that term than everybody else does. Maybe not.

I think you must have access to sources I'm not familiar with, or somehow overlooked. I don't know who "she" is nor do I remember reading about "tough love". This information might change my perception of the place.

"She" is the founder of One Way Farm, and her name is Barbara Condo.

Here is the article that I (obliquely) referred to. There is no date noted in either of the two links, and the Cincinnati Enquirer archives only go as far back as the mid 1990s, so I'm not sure exactly when this was originally published. My guess is that it was some time late 1982.

Alternate link for article includes grainy b&w pic of Condo in 1982 or 83.

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

Cincinnati Enquirer

"WOMEN OF THE YEAR 1982"
Barbara Condo Knows One Way To Help Troubled Youths Change

Barbara Condo just returned from a vacation in Florida. She couldn't wait to get back.

"My family sent me off to get a rest. But I'm not used to all the peace and quiet. I had to turn on the TV every night just to get to sleep. I needed the noise."

The noise that Mrs. Condo loves is the activity at One Way Farm, of which she is the founding mother and spiritual bedrock. The family that sent her to Florida is the 11 teen-agers who live there with her.

Only three of them are hers, three of seven children who still remain at home. The rest are from broken homes, alcoholic or abusive parents, drug addictions, lives of crime, worlds they can't cope with. For helping them to cope with it anyway, Mrs. Condo has been named one of 10 Enquirer Women of the Year for 1982.

It is not the first time she has been named a woman of the year. A few years ago she was Fairfield's Woman of the Year.

Mrs. Condo and her husband, Jerry, formed One Way Farm about six years ago as a place for "trouble kids," where they could find refuge, either from their own families, jail or sometimes even from themselves. Since then, it has become something of a haven, not only for the youths, but for Butler Country Juvenile Court authorities who need to find some tough-love for their young offenders.

Tough-love is what the Condos specialize in. "You can teach kids who are full of hate," Mrs. Condo says. "I teach them some responsibility, and don't let them get by with things. If they're cons at 13, they'll be cons their whole lives, unless something changes. Here, they're productive. And loved. I'm blessed to be able to put that philosophy to use. It's my gift to the world."

That philosophy comes from direct experience. "I had such a rough childhood myself—cold, hungry, lonely and humiliated. But I just couldn't let it go to waste. I know what it is to want to be wanted so bad.

"Here, we recreate the extended family. We all live together, just like a family, and deal with everyday problems. If a kid comes home with a D, he's going to study harder. Even my own kids live here, and they've been raised with ex-offenders, drug addicts, even murderers. They're exceptional kids. They've had a million-dollar education without the cost."

Over the years, the Condos have been family to more than 200 youths. "My husband never knows what his family's going to consist of when he gets home from work (as a truck driver). He just comes in and introduces himself. A lot of people couldn't do that. I certainly couldn't do all this if he couldn't."

Mrs. Condo's work with the youths isn't a sometime thing, because the youths are not a sometime thing. They live right there. So does she. She works from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and then some. "You never know when you're going to get a phone call."

Mrs. Condo measures her success in the tangible ways of the heart. "When one of the kids I've had calls me over Christmas, and maybe he's not even employed, and maybe she's got kids by then, and says 'I'm making it!'—that's success."

FRIDAY: Barbara Fitch
-------------- --------------
The 1982 Women of the Year honorees will be recognized Feb. 25 during a
noon luncheon in the Grand Ballroom of Stouffer's Cincinnati Towers, Sixth and Elm Sts., downtown.

Tickets for the luncheon are $7 each. They may be purchased by mailing a check or money order and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Women of the Year Tickets, The Enquirer, 617 Vine St., Cincinnati 45201. Requests should indicate a preference for a meat or fish entree. Tickets may also be purchased in the Circulation Department on the third floor of The Enquirer. No tickets will be sold at the luncheon.


# # #

[cmack]

Is it possible this place may be one of those "holding tanks" where kids get put upon removal from their families by social service agencies? It seems like these agencies have been getting more and more aggressive and taking some actions that are beyond the pale ... as far as what's in the best interests of the child is concerned.

So there are not 20 beds in this program, but a total of 40. And Canupp won't state her knowledge about protocol when it comes to fights. I would think the development director would be aware of all protocols.

One thing we know about programs, especially ones that live off public money, is that they hate to have empty beds. In the end it all boils down to the money.

[Ursus]

From the above article, emphasis added:

It is not the first time [Barbara Condo] has been named a woman of the year. A few years ago she was Fairfield's Woman of the Year.[/list]

That award was from the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, if I'm not mistaken... Just google "chamber of commerce" + ohio + "voter fraud" and see what ya get!

[cmack]

Mrs. Condo and her husband, Jerry, formed One Way Farm about six years ago as a place for "trouble kids," where they could find refuge, either from their own families, jail or sometimes even from themselves. Since then, it has become something of a haven, not only for the youths, but for Butler Country Juvenile Court authorities who need to find some tough-love for their young offenders.

Tough-love is what the Condos specialize in. "You can teach kids who are full of hate," Mrs. Condo says. "I teach them some responsibility, and don't let them get by with things. If they're cons at 13, they'll be cons their whole lives, unless something changes. Here, they're productive. And loved. I'm blessed to be able to put that philosophy to use. It's my gift to the world."

Okay, it's a Program. As such places go it may not be as bad as some others. There's a certain degree of protection that comes from having mail and phone privileges and going to public schools, and having unsupervised time away from campus, but the mentality appears to be largely the same.

It's that quote above "sometimes even from themselves" that I think irks me the most. There's a huge difference between being nurtured and guided on the one hand and being manipulated and trained like a circus animal on the other. There's a fine line between doing things for people and doing things to people.

[Ursus]

My earlier opinion that this was more of a group home type place versus a BM facility is largely based upon the fact that the kids appear to have unmonitored mail and phone privileges and go to public schools, and may have unsupervised excursions off campus.

If they can intimidate or indoctrinate you to censor yourself, there is less need for these more obvious and admittedly crude methods of ensuring behavior modification.

In fact, the more sophisticated and less overt the methodology, the more insidious and long-lasting the damage. And the more difficult it is to tease out and recover from.

[cmack]

My earlier opinion that this was more of a group home type place versus a BM facility is largely based upon the fact that the kids appear to have unmonitored mail and phone privileges and go to public schools, and may have unsupervised excursions off campus.

If they can intimidate or indoctrinate you to censor yourself, there is less need for these more obvious and admittedly crude methods of ensuring behavior modification.

In fact, the more sophisticated and less overt the methodology, the more insidious and long-lasting the damage. And the more difficult it is to tease out and recover from.

You're talking about Hyde, right? That place must really mess with people's minds. I understand what you are saying. That's why the physical torture attempts at mind control failed while the seemingly softer more benign tactics involving peer pressure and the illusion of choice have been so successful.

[Ursus]

My earlier opinion that this was more of a group home type place versus a BM facility is largely based upon the fact that the kids appear to have unmonitored mail and phone privileges and go to public schools, and may have unsupervised excursions off campus.

If they can intimidate or indoctrinate you to censor yourself, there is less need for these more obvious and admittedly crude methods of ensuring behavior modification.

In fact, the more sophisticated and less overt the methodology, the more insidious and long-lasting the damage. And the more difficult it is to tease out and recover from.

You're talking about Hyde, right? That place must really mess with people's minds. I understand what you are saying. That's why the physical torture attempts at mind control failed while the seemingly softer more benign tactics involving peer pressure and the illusion of choice have been so successful.

:rofl:
You got it. But what Hyde also does is scapegoating, i.e., making individuals so-called examples of what everyone is afraid of becoming. This ends up becoming an incredible disincentive for folk to differ from the status quo.

"Courage," my ass. In reality, it plays as "Conformity."

[Ursus]

Mrs. Condo and her husband, Jerry, formed One Way Farm about six years ago as a place for "trouble kids," where they could find refuge, either from their own families, jail or sometimes even from themselves. Since then, it has become something of a haven, not only for the youths, but for Butler Country Juvenile Court authorities who need to find some tough-love for their young offenders.

Tough-love is what the Condos specialize in. "You can teach kids who are full of hate," Mrs. Condo says. "I teach them some responsibility, and don't let them get by with things. If they're cons at 13, they'll be cons their whole lives, unless something changes. Here, they're productive. And loved. I'm blessed to be able to put that philosophy to use. It's my gift to the world."

Okay, it's a Program. As such places go it may not be as bad as some others. There's a certain degree of protection that comes from having mail and phone privileges and going to public schools, and having unsupervised time away from campus, but the mentality appears to be largely the same.

It's that quote above "sometimes even from themselves" that I think irks me the most. There's a huge difference between being nurtured and guided on the one hand and being manipulated and trained like a circus animal on the other. There's a fine line between doing things for people and doing things to people.

Ya know, I wasn't necessarily trying to convince anyone that this place IS, in fact, a "program" as it is commonly understood to be on fornits. It's just that far too many familiar components associated with coercive thought reform appear to be, and appear to have been for quite some time, securely in place. Consequently, I'm more than a lil suspicious of and concerned about what actually happens to kids, psychologically, long term, as a result of exposure to this place.

I imagine that a number of kids feel truly helped by One Way Farm. I certainly wouldn't want to take that away from them.

On the other hand, there is certainly present and evident, to *me* at least, a number of ideological loopholes often resorted to in this binnis of behav mod that have, historically, resulted in psychological and emotional damage to some kids over the years. Consequently, in *my* book at least, this place has a red flag draped all over it.

Fwiw, I really don't mind if I'm the only one who thinks that-a-way.

[cmack]

Ya know, I wasn't necessarily trying to convince anyone that this place IS, in fact, a "program" as it is commonly understood to be on fornits. It's just that far too many familiar components associated with coercive thought reform appear to be, and appear to have been for quite some time, securely in place. Consequently, I'm more than a lil suspicious of and concerned about what actually happens to kids, psychologically, long term, as a result of exposure to this place.

I imagine that a number of kids feel truly helped by One Way Farm. I certainly wouldn't want to take that away from them.

On the other hand, there is certainly present and evident, to *me* at least, a number of ideological loopholes often resorted to in this binnis of behav mod that have, historically, resulted in psychological and emotional damage to some kids over the years. Consequently, in *my* book at least, this place has a red flag draped all over it.

Fwiw, I really don't mind if I'm the only one who thinks that-a-way.

If I were a kid being routinely beaten or neglected to such an extent that I didn't have food to eat, clothes to wear, or medical or dental care and I was in pain then I'd probably welcome being removed from my home and placed in a place like One Way Farm. In my book the real problem is when kids are forcefully removed from their homes and placed against their will anywhere. In that case I'd view One Way Farm as a prison. It doesn't matter how nice the place may be a gilded cage is still a cage.