Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation Connects with Youth Villages
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s a family counselor with our inhome program Intercept, Lauren Young went into some of the toughest neighborhoods in Memphis, fighting to help parents maintain custody of children or to reunite families with children who had been in foster care or residential treatment. None of the children and families ever knew that the 25-year-old counselor who listened to their deepest problems, picked up their children from school and visited doctors and school meetings was a member of one of the city’s most well-known families. Today, Lauren Wilson Young, the granddaughter of Kemmons Wilson, founder of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels, is executive director of the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation. Although the Wilson family has always been a philanthropic force in Memphis, the foundation was enlarged and became more focused after the patriarch’s death in 2003. The Wilsons’ personal connection with Youth Villages was strengthened by Young’s stint as a counselor, but it began with her father, Spence Wilson, a member of the Youth Villages Board of Directors for many years. He was one of the organization’s earliest supporters, leading our first capital campaign, which raised money for an administrative building, new cottages and the school that bears his name on our Dogwood Campus. “We are committed to Youth Villages,” Young says. The foundation’s latest gift was $250,000 to a Youth Villages capital campaign for the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation Training Room in our Operations Center. It is the room where most new employees get their first introduction to Youth Villages and begin to learn researchbased practices to help children and
Lauren Young and her father, Spence Wilson, pose near portraits of his parents, Kemmons and Dorothy Wilson. Kemmons Wilson founded the Holiday Inn chain of hotels.
families overcome emotional and behavioral problems. Almost 10 years after she left life as a counselor, Young still keeps in close touch with one of the families she helped – and remembers them all. Working with them in the community helped her understand some of the ways that the
Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation can bring positive change to Memphis. “My time at Youth Villages really opened my eyes to the myriad of problems families in Memphis face,” Young says. “It helped me understand why the problems exist and how to approach solving them in measurable steps.”
YOUTH VILLAGES | PROGRAM REPORT
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