Reuniting abused Children with their Parents: Procedures and Results at Children’s Village, U.S.A.

Abstract

Children’s Village, U.S.A. (CVUSA) is a project of I.O.I, (formerly known as International Orphan’s Incorporated) whose sole purpose, as stated in its articles of incorporation, is the “…charitable purpose of encouraging material and spiritual assistance in support of homeless and needy children, including those who are neglected, abused, or abandoned”. This purpose is articulated in a motto inscribed above the entrance to the CVUSA residential treatment facility in rural Beaumont, California: “All Who Enter Here Will Find Love”. CVUSA-Beaumont is designed and operated to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary therapy and love to abused and neglected children and their troubled families. This caring is provided by approximately 120 trained professional, non-professional, and voluntary persons orchestrated to meet the individual needs of 72 abused and neglected children and their families in an enriched living, learning and therapeutic environment. The many detailed and innovative features of this unique program have been described and discussed at length elsewhere (1). Other components of CVUSA’s local, national and international efforts in behalf of primary and secondary prevention of child abuse have also been documented for the interested reader (2).