National Mentor Holdings Board Members

National Mentor Holdings Board Members – Photo Courtesy of Buzzfeed.com

Board Members Of Troubled Foster-Care Company Have Little To Say About Abuses

by Talal Ansari and Aram Roston
Buzzfeed.com

Excerpts:

A recent BuzzFeed News investigation into the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company revealed deaths, sex abuse, and serious lapses in the training and oversight of foster parents.

The investigation into National Mentor Holdings found instances of long-term sex abuse in Maryland by Mentor foster fathers, widespread problems with Mentor documented by the state of Texas, and at least six deaths of children in the custody of Mentor since 2005.

Mentor trades on the New York Stock Exchange as Civitas Solutions Inc., which reported $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Companies can often seem faceless, but like all public companies, Civitas is governed by a board of directors.

BuzzFeed News decided to find out whether members of the board knew about the problems exposed by the recent investigation, and if so, ask what they planned to do about it.

State and local governments have long worked with nonprofits and religious groups to help find good homes for children whose parents can’t care for them. But over the past several decades, for-profit companies have started winning contracts to manage foster care placements. Former Mentor employees said that the pressure to make profits sometimes led to Mentor cutting corners on protecting the children — a charge Mentor strongly disputed in BuzzFeed News’ original story.

Read the full article here.