Fred Finch Youth & Family Services - Oakland, California

Kevin G.

Fred finch is not what you think it is I’ve been there when i was 16 and my mom was always a drunk and she didn’t want to deal with my mental health so she sent me to this place. fred finch youth center is a (prison) for kids and is very inhumane to kids and the staff that works there take advantage of there power do not trust anyone there they will fail you long term 1000% not recommend for treatment this place is hell and i’m suprised nobody filed a lawsuit on this place yet thank goodness im out of that there

ThighFish

(PLEASE READ TO END) Now that 2 years have passed since I've been here and I likely can write this safely, I'm finally ready to say what needs to be said: This place is NOT a provider of mental health services; in fact, it's quite the opposite; an Orwellian detention center. All that really happens is extreme restrictions of freedom and coercion into following the set rules under threat of even more restricted freedom, additionally fueled by irrational technophobia. To add insult to injury, it's done mostly to people who are already psychologically very vulnerable.

I know this all first-hand; being here literally ruined my life possibly beyond repair. I was sent here in the wake of not only months of isolation but also my devastating realization of how bad my parents really are, which they permanently cemented from their complicity in everything Fred Finch did to me. As a result of being here, I became numb to emotion as a defense mechanism, both positive and negative; the former directly reduces my ability to feel pleasure, and due to the latter, I was coerced into a very subservient mindset, and the only way out was to succumb to that mindset, and I have suffered a long-term loss of agency that's led to me being less able to put myself on paths that make me feel happy. It's also forced me to hide my true emotions from my parents, given that they alongside the organization have punished me for stating how I actually feel, and gaslit me into even more negative thoughts about myself, which, again, I still often struggle to shrug off.

Fred Finch for me was like a stabbing wound; there was not only damage from actually being there, but also damage caused that only took effect after I made it out, akin to severe blood loss from immediately removing a blade that's stabbing you. was the harm done to not only my education but also the community I had at school; while I was already in academic peril before being sent here, being here completely destroyed any chance of catching up, and as a result, I couldn't make up the second semester of my junior year. I had to make it up the second semester of the following year, once I was out of this place, delaying my graduation a year and exiling me into a different graduating class from the one I had been at home in for years.

As a result of all this, I lost touch with my original graduating class while I was here, and by the time I could try to regain it, it was too late, ending in extreme heartbreak, the loss of a friendship I treasured, and social anxiety which I had never had before. Furthermore, the effects of having been here proved fatal to vital preparation I needed to have to get into what I later determined to be my dream college experience right after graduating, resulting in not only me being rejected but also forcing me to start college with a different path, delaying my desired proper, full college experience by a third year. To recap, having been here has already set me back 3 years, and there's no guarantee it won't be more.

If the law were any decent, this place would've been closed long ago and all staff prosecuted, with some getting prison time. To any current or former staff reading this, I hope you realize that you've been actively complicit in destroying people's lives. I'm never forgetting what Fred Finch did to me, and I will make sure the organization and its staff are prosecuted to the fullest extent of not only existing laws but also future laws passed to crack down on these moral crimes.

And to anyone who is even considering sending your kid here, DO NOT DO IT. And as for the other positive reviews, they're most likely from either parents of kids who went here and were coerced into suppressing their emotions or parents who don't care about what their kid went through, or are from former clients as a sign of either Stockholm syndrome or having been gaslit. Again, this is NOT a mental health organization; it's an Orwellian dystopia that can ruin people's lives far beyond when they leave. I seriously hope you heard me out on this one.

Derrick W.

I was one of the kids that stayed here for a while. When I failed here all I wanted to do was come back. It was 1985. I had good friends and a counselor that cared.

Kissy M.

Beware of this place. It use to have a great program but not no more. Very bad experience they treat kids horrible and don't know how to talk to parents.

To N. M. S.

This community based organization has a decades long history of supporting Oakland and East Bay youth achieve mental health, educational, housing, employment and sustainability goals.

Chris K.

Staff is friendly, grounds are a bit ill maintained. Security may be asleep, other than him no one else is available to check in with

Will R.

Amazing organization. They don't just say they help homeless youth and/or at risk youth, they actually do. Even though they are an organization that help youth, they not only help youth, they help their families as well.

Purple ?. G.

They helped me get housing at a good place in Oakland. They are ready to help me with any problem