Honoring Legacy, Embracing Transformation
Tara Augustine, YCS President & CEO
State of the Agency Address
2025 YCS Annual Meeting
This year — 2025 — represents more than just another fiscal cycle. It marks a metamorphosis for YCS. For over a century, this organization has been a place of refuge, healing, and hope. We’ve weathered storms, evolved systems, and stayed faithful to our calling. Today, we stand at a powerful intersection — between the legacy we’ve inherited and the future we are creating.
Impact and Financial Strength
The strength of YCS lies in its continuum of care — a model that connects prevention, intervention, and lifelong support, across every age and ability.
This year, that continuum reached over 3500 individuals across 63 programs statewide, supported by a $75.5 million budget.
Behind those numbers are powerful stories:
- In our DCF programs, we see stabilization and healing.
- In DDD programs, we uphold dignity and quality of life.
- Through community programs, we build prevention and early intervention.
- And in our schools, we deliver specialized education — and with it, hope.
One story that stay with me that is featured in the annual report — the adaptive furniture project, made possible by the Alfred N. Sanzari Family Foundation. It shows how thoughtful design can turn treatment spaces into places of real belonging.
When we shape environments around human needs, we don’t just provide care — we create homes. And through the generosity of our donors and partners, we’re reimagining our facilities to match the quality of care within them.
Transformation is not a finite project. It’s a sustained commitment to excellence — to adapt, adjust, and accommodate the evolving needs of those we serve.
Commitment to Quality and Safety
Financially, we remain strong and disciplined. But our true currency is impact — measured not in balanced budgets, but in lives changed.
Children in our behavioral health programs saw mood and feeling scores improve by 43%. Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities experienced a 24% decrease in depression scores. And the Children’s Hope Scale — a measure of optimism and resilience — rose by nearly four points.
That’s nurturing hope in action.
And at the heart of this impact is our workforce. With 27% turnover, YCS continues to outperform national benchmarks of 36% — proof that when we care for our people, they stay and grow with us.
We recognized longevity with $400,000 in bonuses to our frontline employees with 5 or more years of service and expanded our 403(b) match to include part-time staff from day one. These investments send a clear message: we see you, we value you, and we’re investing in you.
We’re also investing in the future of our field.
- Our Clinical Brain Trust has streamlined documentation, launched a new Treatment Plan Library, and strengthened Clinical CARE Rounds – improving retention of critical clinician roles.
- Our Internship Program spans 24 programs and 12 university partners, creating a pipeline of skilled clinicians.
- And a dream come true for me — through the Gordan Family Trust Scholarship, we awarded $40,000 in professional development support.
Learning organizations build lasting change — and YCS is one of them.
Leadership, Workforce, and Culture
Our management team has led with both head and heart — meeting challenges on the frontlines, modeling resilience, and living our values. We’ve built a culture where improvement isn’t a project; it’s how we operate.
Across the agency, teams have created spaces of trust and recognition:
- Southern Region DDD launched quarterly appreciation days, celebrating 48 staff.
- Southern Region BH developed regional offerings that improve youth engagement.
- Health Services now gathers in-person for connection and recognition.
- Northern Region held mini–Town Halls and upgraded facilities.
- Our schools and ABA programs built collaboration time into their working days.
Every one of these actions says: we listen, we act, and we care.
This year, 57 internal promotions reflect the strength of our leadership pipeline. Through the Emerging Leaders Program and the Employee Scholarship, we’re preparing tomorrow’s leaders today.
Strategic Growth and Institute Expansion
Transformation is not only cultural — it’s strategic.
On November 1, YCS will assume seven new residential programs through the NJ Mentor transfer, welcoming 95 new staff members into the YCS family.
This expansion — paired with the promotions of two Program Directors to Regional Directors — reflects both growth and leadership continuity.
Supporting leadership development is one of the things I love most about this work, and I’m proud of our team for rising to the occasion and envisioning a future filled with hope.
Even amid Medicaid funding uncertainty, this expansion strengthens our resilience, ensuring we remain ready to meet needs as they arise.
The launch of the Passaic County Service Coordination Unit was a full-circle moment — a symbol of innovation that strengthens the YCS continuum of care and supports individuals at every stage of life.
Our Early Intervention Services, supported by a new $4.2 million grant, now reach 1,400 families each month.
Advocacy and Vision
As we grow internally, we’re also raising our external voice.
This year, YCS will reach nearly 70 million households – our Special Education Schools are being highlighted in a national public television segment in collaboration with Empowered with Meg Ryan, and we’ve also launched a statewide commercial to recruit foster families for our Treatment Homes progam.
Visibility isn’t vanity — it’s advocacy. It’s how we attract talent, influence policy, and expand access for those who need us most.
We’re no longer just responding to systems — we’re helping shape them.
This work is not for the faint of heart — and my leadership team can attest to that. We joke about how painstaking some of our meetings can be, but when we see the impact, it makes every late night and every hard conversation worth it.
As a social worker first, I’m deeply passionate about the processes that lead to meaningful outcomes. Through honest dialogue and solution-focused thinking, YCS has earned growing respect at the state level. We’ve challenged the status quo — examining staffing standards, regulations, and realities — and fiercely advocated for our workforce and those they serve.
And over the past few months, our team has made a herculean effort to transition seven new NJ Mentor homes. That is no small feat. It’s because of the service, commitment, and heart of the people in this room that the State of New Jersey said to me, “YCS has transformed.”
And they’re right. We have — together.
Closing: The Butterfly Moment
We have faced challenges — staffing shortages, regulatory pressures, audits galore, growing demand — and yet, through it all, we have not wavered in our purpose. We haven’t just endured; we’ve evolved. We’ve built something rare — a culture that listens, learns, and leads with compassion.
As I reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going, I’m drawn to the butterfly on the annual report. Transformation isn’t instant. In the cocoon, so much pressure that it can feel like confinement… But, something extraordinary is taking shape: quiet work, invisible progress, preparation for flight.
That has been YCS this past year — transforming, aligning, preparing.
And now, we are ready to soar. Stronger, steadier, and more united than ever.
To our Board — thank you for your faith.
To our leaders — thank you for your courage.
And to every member of our YCS family — thank you for giving this organization its wings.
Together, we’re writing the next chapter of YCS — a story not just of care, but of metamorphosis.
