About Us
Our Organization
VQ is a national comprehensive child, youth and family services organization committed to providing successful and effective services while adhering to the highest professional standards.
VQ operates around the nation, providing care services such as residential programming, community-based services, and in-home services for children and their families. We work with state and federal governments to go where the need is greatest and give back to communities that need our services the most. Regardless of the circumstances and background that a child comes from, we believe they deserve an opportunity for a good life.
About VQ
VQ has remained dedicated to the same goals we were founded on in 1973: helping youth in adverse situations and bringing families closer together.
VQ has nearly 50 years of experience with providing children, youth and families with trauma-informed practice to promote their highest potential. We are cognizant of the histories that children, youth and families come to us with, but also help them look toward a future with positive growth and change.
Our services are designed and delivered with these foundations and principles:
Children and Youth
are safe, respected and honored
Families
are protected, strengthened and educated
Our Team
is developed, supported and encouraged
Communities
are engaged, valued, and involved
VQ was originally founded as VisionQuest National, Ltd. in 1973.
VQ, VisionQuest National Ltd., was established in 1973 in Tucson, Arizona by founder Robert L. Burton. After working in the harsh and ineffective juvenile corrections systems of the 1960s, Bob moved west to become a VISTA volunteer with Native American populations in the northern plains. There he met Dan Old Elk, a leader in the Crow Nation who introduced Bob to the rite of passage ceremony, a ‘vision quest,' which is meant to help a young person transition from the confusion of adolescence to adulthood. Inspired by this time, Bob envisioned a healthier and more humane way to deal with America’s delinquent youth. Instead of shutting young teenagers away in locked institutions as a form of punishment, VisionQuest developed unique adventure quests like the wagon trains and living history programs like the “Buffalo Soldiers." Participating in these extraordinary experiences gave these young people an opportunity to experience success by hard work and commitment giving them a new frame of reference for a positive future.
As of 2020, VQ has served more than 150,000 youth through local, state, and federal partnerships.
We dedicate ourselves to providing the highest quality services and surrounding the children and teens in our programs with staff who can also serve as healthy, positive role models. We currently offer residential programming, community-based services, and in-home services to children and their families in six states: Delaware, Maryland, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Our Mission
VQ is a national comprehensive child, youth and family services organization, committed to providing successful and effective services while adhering to the highest professional standards. With nearly 50 years of experience. VQ provides children, youth and families with a trauma-informed and guided centering practice to promote their highest potential.
Our services are designed and delivered with these foundations and principles:
Children and Youth
are safe, respected and honored
Families are protected
strengthened and educated
Our team is developed
supported and encouraged
Communities are engaged
valued and involved
Bob Burton
Founder
Message from our Founder
In 1973, almost 50 years ago I left my career working in juvenile justice institutions or lockups of the time to start an alternative in the private sector. I named this program after the native American rite of passage, the vision quest, because of my time spent as a Vista volunteer with Native Americans in the Crow tribe in Montana. While there I developed a lasting collaboration and friendship with a young tribal leader, Dan Old Elk who was later instrumental in the development and operation of VQ. I was honored to be adopted into his family and to be given the right to use the tribal ceremonies in my work with people. Later, having met a talented partner in Steve Rogers who came with me from the field of corrections, we set out to challenge young offenders by having them make commitments and then ask them to live up to them.
Not only were we pioneers in the shift away from large state-run institutions we literally became pioneers. In the year of our country’s Bicentennial, 1976, we started a wagon train program crisscrossing the country for a decade, powered by mules, youthful offenders, and incredible staff members. In the years since, over 150,000 young people have participated in adventure based and community-based programming in 10 states. We were known for taking the toughest kids and we did a good job with them.
Just like the juvenile justice system has changed, VQ has adapted its program into new categories known as “best practices” for youth in trouble. Taking on the shattered lives of dependent kids whose lives have been damaged by their dysfunctional families has added new dimensions to VQ’s circle of care. Most recently, we have been honored to provide therapeutic, humane shelter services to youngsters who have traveled their own “quest” in coming thousands of miles to find a place of safety in our country.
In its basic form we use the circle as an approach to treatment, perspectives, communications and organizational structure. Each cardinal direction provides a guidepost for going full circle through the program. This nonlinear approach was based on the Native American medicine wheel which in many ways served as a guide for behavior and tool for communications in community life.
There has been a core group of staff members over the years, known within our company as SPS (Senior Professional Staff) who have committed themselves to VQ’s on-going improvement. In doing so they have made all the difference. I have seen the ethic of the SPS is ever continuing and I am encouraged that our philosophy will remain influential in the treatment of kids in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
VQ currently operates in 6 states across the United States: Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. We are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to expand and bring our programs to new communities to provide help to youth in need.
VQ provides a wide variety of services, including Functional Family Therapy, care for unaccompanied minors entering the U.S., group homes for youth transitioning into independent living, specialized residential care, and foster and adoptive services.
There are a number of reasons that VQ was designed as a for-profit organization, but foremost among these is the idea that to stay competitive, a company operating for a profit must maintain the highest standards possible at all times. It is for this reason that VQ is constantly on the cutting edge when it comes to the services we offer and the way in which we care for our youth.
VQ is a comprehensive child, youth, and family services organization that operates nationwide to bring help to areas in need. We offer a wide range of services for both youth and their families and ensure that those services are of the highest quality.
Work with VQ
VQ has and continues to create a wide array of careers and opportunities in the communities we operate in. Through training and continued support, our staff are empowered to change the course of children’s lives for the better one day at a time.
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