The Masonic Center for Youth and Families (MCYF), scheduled to open at the end of this year, is founded on the fraternity's long-standing commitment to serve children. Through this new Center, we will continue our tong and proud tradition of making a profound difference in the lives of youth and their families.
While we no longer provide residential services for children, we continue to support services for the children who lived with us for many years. This year we awarded scholarships to 22 former residents for vocational schools, colleges, university and graduate school.
MCYF was created to serve youth age 4 to 17 with behavioral or learning problems in a needed, meaningful, and more innovative way. Integrated and comprehensive psychological services will be provided in a manner unavailable anywhere else in the country. A multi-disciplinary team of experts will assess the complete child from all angles. From this, the team will develop a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses the child's and the family's needs.
The Center will be located in San Francisco, but designed to serve Masonic and non-Masonic families throughout the state. Masonic families will always be granted priority. We will help Masonic families pay for travel costs as necessary for the initial on-site assessment and meetings with the treatment team to discuss findings and recommendations for treatment. The team will identify appropriate resources in the family's home community to implement the treatment plan and maintain ongoing contact with the family.
We are also committed to do research to improve our treatments and share our knowledge with others. We will treat the complete child in a way no one else is doing, and we hope our example will lead to improvement in therapeutic services for others. We are working with experts from across the country, and internationally, including the Yale Child Study Center and the Anna Freud Centre in London, to ensure we do this right.
You and the lodges are important partners in serving member needs. You are in the best position to know when one of your brother's children or grandchildren is struggling. Please help us ensure that no member of our fraternal family is ever alone with those struggles. Displaying the attached poster in a prominent place in your lodge will help inform members about this important new Center and how to access our services.
If you have any questions or comments about this initiative, please contact us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 877-488-6293.
Fraternally yours,
David Doan, PGM, President, Board of Trustees, Masonic Homes of California
