The Village for Families & Children, Inc. 1680 Albany Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105

"One of my kids was at this facility for less than 2 weeks and she got physically abused her by other residents everyday . She got hit so hard on the head that she got dizzy and no one stopped the abuse . The staff looks the other way and doesn’t care . I put in a call to DCF to file a complaint in order for them to investigate and they never put in the report . DO NOT SEND ANY OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS HERE . I only reason I gave this review a 1 star is so it would let me post it ."

"Don’t bring anyone to this place. Especially into Eagle house/Residential programs. Kids are always fighting each other, Staff don’t do anything. Staff also Harass clients and abuse them too. The rooms are as small as closets, many times windows aren’t available the smells are foul in the bedrooms. They barely wash bedding and clothing. And many times communication with clinician’s and waiting for pick ups take forever. Try looking up the sunshine case/lawsuit too. Food isn’t properly cooked and prepared, Or given. The only time bedrooms are available are at bedtime, so clients can’t rest. Just don’t bring them here."

"If you genuinely want too get your child HELP, stay away from this place! They were horrible! My daughter was here for 4.5 months and she came home even worse than she was when she initially went in. My husband and I were flabbergasted! Her language changed, she began swearing on a regular basis, using words she could have only heard there, it was absolutely insane the things she learned here at only 9 years old. I get that they can't control every little thing, but this was next level. It was literally as if she was encouraged to act out and display her feelings even if it meant being physically violent towards her parents or staff. It's heartbreaking to be sitting there begging for help and to have yourself not be heard. My daughter broke a window while she was here, trashed the therapists room on a weekly basis, ran away (literally broke through the fence, and this was less than 48 hours before they discharged her!), She was regularly attacking staff, hurting herself, plus so much more! At discharge, something that should have taken no more than 45 minutes took in excess of 2 hours. She became very violent towards my husband and myself, hitting staff, spitting in their faces, throwing snow at them, biting, etc ... Any other facility like this would have pulled discharge & continued working with the child, but this facility forced us through the paperwork while she was attacking everyone and then told us they couldn't help and "good luck". Since my daughter was discharged from here on February 1, 2022 she has since had eight hospitalizations... The first one being only 6 days after she was discharged!!! We didn't expect The Village to "fix her" however we also didn't expect them to tell us to allow her to beat on us until she's content. Yes, this is 100% what the "therapist" (I use that term loosely as she was not the greatest!!) there told us, that if she is feeling dysregulated to allow her to beat/hit/kick/bite etc on us even if it lasts 2 to 3 hours no matter where we are!! Again, just stay away! STAY AWAY!"

"Here is my review for them as an employer only, not for their programs: Keep your mouth shut if you don't want to experience immediate retaliation like I did. Vocal and outspoken employees are quickly retaliated against for reporting unethical behavior or expressing different viewpoints. Once employees do report anything unethical or disagree with something, I feel like both human resources and management deliberately targets them. And I feel it's because the agency just tries to weed out those employees who they consider to be a possible liability to them later on because of how much negative information they know. These statements are based on my individual experiences while working here, but yours may differ. That's why you are probably better off not reporting anything to anyone including their human resources department who is not very fair or ethical in my opinion. Wait until after you have already quit before saying anything negative. Agency officials seem to take things extremely personally and are unable to accept constructive criticism or change. For all these negatives, don't allow my review to discourage children or their families from seeking help here. Just because The Village is a very bad place to work for employees, it does not mean they don't have some very good programs. All of The Village's programs are very diverse and effective in helping children and families heal from trauma."