A letter from Board President Mitch Dann

Thank you for your support of Teton Youth and Family Services (TYFS)! I am starting my fifth year as a board member, second (and last) year as president of the board and celebrating nearly 20 years as a supporter. TYFS helps youth and families in many ways by providing family counseling and youth training, a safe home when the youth’s home is not a place they can be, and an alternative path for restitution and juvenile jail. TYFS does a lot.

In short, my view of TYFS is we help youth to help themselves to find a better path, one that leads to a higher quality of life through relationships with others and contribution to society as opposed to a life potentially of societal dependence. My right brain revels at the help we provide to these youth and family and my left brain revels at the amazing return on investment between a lifetime of contribution vs. dependence.

Covid has created special challenges for us. We did not have a choice to shut down this spring we had to operate with the youth in our care. It was an interesting learning experience. A Covid Plan was rapidly developed, implemented and iterated as we learned. The organization rose to the challenge and I was most impressed by the actions taken to help reduce our employees stress and worries. Of course operating in the times of Covid has meant increased expenses.

About one- third of the organization’s $3 million annual budget comes from philanthropy. We receive good support from the County and Town. The State has offered some challenges and we are still awaiting budgetary changes they have told us are coming. At the same time we along with the other service providers in the State have been advocating with our constituents there.

The nature of the payment structure of the State is that our expenses exceed what we are paid for the services we provide. Perhaps that is the State’s way of saying we want the local community involved. The good news is we have a great local community who has generously supported TYFS over the years. Being able to help these youth and families help themselves, makes our community stronger, as families are the fabric of a community.

I hope as you are making your Old Bill’s list you will once again consider Teton Youth and Family Services! We greatly appreciate your support and your recognition of how TYFS makes a difference and builds a stronger community.

With Best Regards,

Mitch Dann

TYFS Board President