Polinsky Childrens Center

"Seeing the reviews from kids in placement here hurts, I was in the young girls cabin back in 2011 I believe. I was lucky enough to be placed with my sister even though she was technically supposed to be in the older girls cabin. I came past midnight ripped from any sense of normality and there was no sort of accommodation, they treated me as if I had been there for months and should have known what I was doing when I was a 5th grader. The lunch and dinner was so greasy and disgusting I'd go nights without eating because I knew if I ate I'd vomit, the quality of living was so low I can barely consider it any less of a jail. I recall a girl asking one of the staff for a bra, the staff member very loudly made fun of her for thinking she needed one. There was a boy with anger issues in the cabin next door and we had to be trained on a "code red" if he got out because he always ran to this cabin and would try hurting the girls, why were there absolutely no precautions for that? These girls are already traumatized enough. The only solace I had was an overnight staff who would sit on the upstairs couch and would let me sit and cry with her without judgement, days she wasn't working I'd be yelled at to go back to my room and sleep. I genuinely hope she's doing better in her older years. I constantly wonder how these girls have grown up and whether they're doing alright or not :( we all deserved so much better than we got. Another mention, the foster placements were terrible, I don't know if the center has anything to do with it but I was taken out of one abusive home and thrown right into another one."

"i hope no child ever has to go here. even though i was young the memories of this place haunt me every single day."

"I was a child when I was brought to this place. I had friends here, with many troubles, horrible upbringings, drug addictions, pregnant teenage girls, violently different values, and all the trauma you can believe. The counselors that helped me were angels. I was distraught, my parents were good people, yet they had mental problems and couldn't support me as a child. They couldn't afford my medical bills, I was going to die. My mother passed when I was two years into a loving foster home. We would visit and meet my parents for dinner sometimes. It was like a prison visit. "Visitation" they called it. Every step and process was documented. My parents didn't want me as their child. Why? Because they knew that I was a challenge that they weren't able to deal with at that time in their lives. I am 32 years old at the time of this writing, and I have some qualms with the institutionalized process that the fostercare system had in place. However, Polinsky Childrenss Center kept me alive, and the counselors gave me a new perspective on life. I learned how to play chess, "Mr. Merv", I learned how lasers worked and obtained a book regarding the study of light, "Mr. Edward", we had classes taught by a giant of a man, I cannot remember his name, but he showed us how to Breakdance, he was particularly awesome. My therapist "Miss Cindy" was a great beacon in my upbringing, she had a little sandbox with a rake and you could put tractors and toys into it and build whatever you wanted on a small scale. Her therapy taught me that I could build something great. One day she brought in some pieces of paper, and started folding them. She made a swan out of paper. Origami. I was obsessed with this practice and had a three-ring binder filled with everything you could imagine, I wasn't very good at it, but I tried, I made a scorpion, a crab, a frog, a ninja star, and a seahorse out of paper. That was the turning point for me. I realized that I had to become better than myself. A conundrum to some, a release to others. Anyways, anyone who goes to this place has to realize that humanity exists to help each other. We are the fulmination of our thoughts, we have to help one another. Long rant, and I wouldn't be here if this place hadn't been a source of good. Cheers."

"This place was hellish in nature and abusive. Not only was I mistreated in this facility but I was also neglected and forced against my will. I had been physically and mentally changed (for the worse) because of this foundation and its terrible system. I want this place to be shut-down because of what they did to not only me, but the countless of other people who were mistreated by the staff and system!"