Ribbon cutting held for new campus house that will enable YFT to provide residential services to 36 additional girls each year who are pregnant, young mothers, homeless, runaways or survivors of sex trafficking; Residence is second group home donated and built for YFT by HomeAid Northern Virginia
Bristow, VA – Oct. 1, 2016 – Girls who are pregnant, homeless, runaways or survivors of sex trafficking will now have a safe, stable place to call “home” on the 215 acre Youth For Tomorrow (YFT) campus in Bristow, Va. The new residence, the second built by HomeAid Northern Virginia for YFT in the past year, was debuted in an Oct. 1st ribbon cutting ceremony at YFT’s annual “Country Fair” community event and attended by local politicians, community advocates, and sports personality Joe Gibbs, the former Washington Redskins NFL Hall of Fame head coach and Founder of Youth For Tomorrow.
“Many of the girls at Youth For Tomorrow arrive only with the hope that they can find a safe space to rebuild their lives. Many have lived through physical or sexual abuse. All have faced challenges no child should face. With the dedicated girls’ homes on campus, our comprehensive support services and our school, we can enable these girls to heal and rebuild,” said Youth for Tomorrow Founder, Coach Joe Gibbs, who started the organization 31 years ago. YFT is unique in that it not only provides a full continuum of residential and outpatient services, but also offers its own nationally accredited secondary school for the at-risk youth it serves.
HomeAid Northern Virginia builds and renovates homeless shelters and housing facilities via the donated expertise, labor and resources of local homebuilders – enabling nonprofit organizations like Youth for Tomorrow to invest more of their budgets in supportive programs and services rather than building expenses. The construction of the new 5,000 sq. ft. girls residence, named the Brenda House, was led by HANV project builder captain Toll Brothers and 64 trade partners (suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors) that donated expertise, labor and/or materials to the project.
Homeless and runaway youth are at a higher risk for physical abuse, sexual exploitation, substance abuse, and death. Many have dropped out or will drop out of school. Approximately 75 percent of runaways in the U.S. are female, and the new home was specifically constructed to serve as a girls’ residence. The new facility will enable YFT to expand its residential services to up to 36 more girls age 11 to 17 each year – girls who are often pregnant, young mothers, homeless, runaways or survivors of sex trafficking.
“HomeAid, Toll Brothers and its network of trade partners have provided an amazing gift to the children and students in our care. This was not just a construction project, it was a home building project in the truest sense of the word – providing a safe, stable and secure place for girls coming out of hardship to grow and rebuild. This home will help nurture the spirits of hundreds and hundreds of girls here at Youth for Tomorrow over the years ahead,” said Dr. Gary Jones, the CEO of Youth For Tomorrow.
“At Toll Brothers, we know that a community is made up of more than houses, and that it is only as strong as the people in it. We believe in giving back to the community and our collaboration with HomeAid to lead the construction of the new residence for Youth For Tomorrow is a meaningful opportunity for us to make a difference. We’re proud to play this role in providing a safe haven of hope for the young women who will be calling it home,” said Toll Brothers Regional President Bill Gilligan.
The new home construction is a $630,000 investment in Youth For Tomorrow, the local community it serves, and to the Northern Virginia community at large, who may not ever use YFT programs but who benefit indirectly from having comprehensive services for youth and families in the local area. HomeAid, Toll Brothers and trade partners donated 61% of the total cost. YFT philanthropist, Mr. Bob Wiser, generously donated the remaining funds for this, the 6th girl’s home in YFT’s “Wiser Village” campus. The Brenda House is named after Mr. Wiser’s deceased niece whom he dearly loved and admired. Chantilly, Va.-based Staged Interior donated more than $85,000 worth of furniture and furnishings to make the house a home for the young residents soon to move in.
Following the ribbon cutting of the Brenda House, Youth for Tomorrow celebrated the groundbreaking of a new chapel on its campus. The Chapel will be constructed with major donations from The Peterson Family Foundation, the Wm. A. Hazel Family, Bob Wiser and Joe Gibbs.
About HomeAid Northern Virginia
HomeAid Northern Virginia, a chapter of HomeAid America, engages the resources and interests of the homebuilding community and its corporate partners in order to undertake new construction and major renovations to properties owned by homelessness service providers that help homeless people gain stability and get back on the road to self-sufficiency. The organization was started in 2001 by members of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA), and since then, has completed more than 111 projects valued at more than $13.8 million, serving more than 95,000 homeless individuals.
About Youth for Tomorrow
Youth for Tomorrow has been helping at-risk children become responsible members of society for more than 31 years. In 2015, more than 400 teenage boys and girls were served in the residential programs, which includes a program for sex trafficked domestic girls. This program has become a national model for re-directing the lives of these child victims of adult criminals. In addition to its residential programs, more than 6,800 children and their families were served in YFT’s six Behavioral Health Services Programs in satellite offices in Woodbridge, Manassas and Gainesville. YFT is nationally accredited through the Council on Accreditation (COA), an independent not-for-profit organization headquartered in New York that accredits human service organizations like YFT throughout the nation. For additional information about YFT or its programs visit http://www.youthfortomorrow.org.
About Toll Brothers:
Toll Brothers, an award-winning Fortune 1000 company founded in 1967, embraces an unwavering commitment to quality and customer service. Toll Brothers is currently building in 19 states nationwide and is a publicly owned company whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TOL). In FORTUNE Magazine’s 2016 Survey of The World’s Most Admired Companies®* Toll Brothers was ranked #6 worldwide across ALL INDUSTRIES in Quality of Products/Services Offered after Apple, Walt Disney, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nordstrom, and before Netflix and Facebook. In the same 2016 survey, Toll Brothers was named the #1 Home Builder Worldwide. The Company was named America’s Most Trusted Home Builder™ 2015† by Lifestory Research, receiving the highest numerical score among the largest 133 home builders in the country. Toll Brothers was also recently honored as national Builder of the Year by BUILDER magazine, and was twice named national Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine.
* FORTUNE Magazine’s survey of the “World’s Most Admired Companies®” for 2016 began with over 1,500 companies across more than 50 industries, and asked over 4,000 executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria (Go to http://fortune.com/worlds-most-admired-companies/ for the full methodology.) From FORTUNE Magazine, March 1, 2016 ©2016 Time Inc. FORTUNE and The World’s Most Admired Companies are registered trademarks of Time Inc. and are used under license. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Toll Brothers, Inc. † Toll Brothers received the highest numerical score in the United States in the proprietary Lifestory Research 2015 America’s Most TrustedTM Home Builder study. Study based on 43,200 new home shoppers in 27 markets. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed between January and December 2014.
Construction trade partners, manufacturers, suppliers, and others participating in and contributing to this project include:
84 Lumber ABC Supply AJ Trim Allied Building Supply American Disposal Services Armstrong Atlas Plumbing Audio Buys B&K Distributors Beltway Marble Buhl Electric Builders First Source Building Fire Solutions Burton & Robinson Carrier Certainteed Cesarios Inc. CTI DAL Tile Duron/Sherwin Williams Eastern States Engineering Falcon HVAC Five Star Septic GAF GE Appliances Glen Gery Brick HDS Drywall and Paint Home Team Pest Defense J&J Ironworks JC Roman Construction Kingspan Kohler |
Kwikset Leggett & Platt Long Fence Loudoun Stairs Masonry Masters McKeever Services Corporation New York Concrete Next Day Blinds Owens Corning Potomac Waterproofing Price Construction Progress Lighting R&F Metals The Roof Center Select Construction Seneca Valley Builders Shaw, Inc. Sheets Sterling, Inc Silverline Windows Sky Marble and Granite Southland Insulators Stadler Nurseries Staged Interior State Hot Water TAC Ceramic Tile Company Timberlake Cabinetry Titan Erosion Control Toll Integrated Systems Toll Landscape Trex Weyerhauser William A. Hazel |