After graduating from BYU, one couple decided to use their talents and education to help at-risk children by establishing a foster and proctor placement agency.
Redwood Therapy and Youth Services was established in Oct. 2011 in Eagle Mountain by Adney and Tina Reid. The organization finds and trains foster and proctor families, then works with state caseworkers to place children with certified families. Redwood Therapy and Youth Services helps children transition into adult life, provides therapy and counseling for the child and his or her family and provides outpatient therapy for the community.
Neither Adney nor Tina foresaw themselves creating this organization.
As a child, Tina wanted to be either an astronaut or a lawyer. While growing up, Tina’s family moved around a lot, and also had several cousins live with her family to better their family situations. Tina’s upbringing helped her realize the importance of helping and including others, and also made her want to help people have a better life.
Adney grew up in American Samoa playing football and dreamed of being a professional football player. Adney worked for a brief time at a youth facility called Heritage Schools, a residential treatment facility for troubled teens.
“While working here as a summer job, I quickly grew to enjoy working with this population. That interest soon became my motivation to become a therapist,” Adney said. “After researching various avenues, I decided to go into social work and obtain my master’s to provide counseling for these teens.”
After graduating, Adney dreamed of creating his own agency.
“While working for other agencies had its benefits, I truly felt that having my own agency would give me the autonomy I needed to help the kids in the best way I knew how,” Adney said.
Tina was skeptical at first. She was unfamiliar with the field and thought it might prove too difficult to start their organization while trying to raise three young children. Adney felt passionately that it was what they needed to do, so Tina agreed to help. Tina now loves her job.
“I knew from the beginning that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it the right way,” Tina said. “Not just as a business opportunity but in a way to genuinely help those involved.”
Tina majored in anthropology, and said that her education in this field has proven invaluable in her work.
“I feel like it broadened my thinking in understanding not only other cultures that we come across, but just being more sensitive to other ways of thinking and all types of family dynamics,” Tina said.
Kim Moir, who discovered Redwood Therapy and Youth Services in Jan. 2012, finds being a proctor parent rewarding.
“Seeing these children get a light in their eyes because they know they are safe, loved and protected is the best reward you can get,” Moir said. “I enjoy the children in the program because I see the value they have as humans which sometimes others forget they have.”
Elisabeth Sollis, a public information officer for the Utah Department of Human Services, believes that these organizations are important for helping at-risk children.
“(We) strongly believe in providing training and counseling options for foster families,” Sollis said. “We have had positive experiences with many of our providers and, more importantly, foster families and children in care have received the support they need and deserve.”
More information about the Reids and about Redwood Therapy and Youth Services can be found at their website, redwoodyouth.com.
