Mission Statement
The Villages Inc. is committed to providing emotionally supportive families and homes to children and youth in need.
Organization Overview
The Villages, Inc. is a non-profit (501 c-3), state-licensed agency which was founded in 1964 by Dr. Karl Menninger to provide homes for children who had been abused, neglected or abandoned. In 1969, The Villages first group home opened its doors. Since then, The Villages has added seven more group homes that provide children a stable, loving home in a family-style setting.
Currently, The Villages operates five group homes in Topeka and two in Lawrence, all of which provide homes for up to 10 youth aged 6 to 18. The homes are staffed by professionally-trained parents who serve as role models to the children. The house parents are married couples who live in the homes with the children, providing them with food, clothing, shelter and love. The group homes provide daily structure, controlled activities, counseling services and professional academic tutoring. In addition, the youth are encouraged to get involved in activities in their school and community.
The children at The Villages come from both the foster care and juvenile justice systems.
At the same time the first group home opened in 1969, The Villages set aside a 372-acre native grass and woodland nature preserve located along the Kansas River near the five Topeka group homes. The philosophy of The Villages and Dr. Karl Menninger has always been that protection and conservation of both children and the environment are interconnected and central to the future health of the community.
A nationally-renowned mental health professional, Dr. Menninger also believed that nature played a key role in healing the traumatized children served by The Villages.
Dr. Menninger knew that by connecting a child first to their environment – whether to animals, plants or other living creatures – the doors of attachment began to open, paving the way for these youth to build stable, healthy human relationships.
The nature preserve became the W. Clement Stone Nature Center in 1989, with a start-up endowment grant from W. Clement Stone. These funds purchased an adjacent house and property to serve as an education building and to house a wildlife rehabilitation program. These funds also supported a prairie and wildlife restoration project on the property, resulting in the Center returning more than 100 acres of brome hay land to native grasses and wildflower species.
The Stone Nature Center provides activities which play a vital role in healing the deep wounds of the youth at The Villages.
In addition to the group homes, The Villages has four licensed foster homes. These homes are in the Topeka community and are supervised by social workers from The Villages. Each of these foster homes can care for two youth.
More Information
Find out more about the children we serve and answer all of your other questions at the links below.