History

In 1969, Utah resident Lila Bjorklund was touched by the plight of troubled girls in Utah. Although there were programs in place for boys, girls were either warehoused in inadequate foster homes or sent to detention. To respond to this need, Lila, along with a other dedicated volunteers, marshaled the resources to create Utah Girls' Village. The original home, built with donated labor and materials on donated land, served eight teenaged girls.

The success of Utah Girls' Village and the increasing number of troubled youth, led the Village to include boys in 1989, thus becoming Utah Youth Village. In 1990, we began serving younger children in our Treatment Foster Homes. In 1993, we added Families First, an in-home intervention to help parents with troubled children. And in 2002, we opened Alpine Academy, a residential treatment center for teenage girls. This year, we are opening two group homes for troubled girls between the ages of six and twelve.

Lila worked 40 - 50 hours a week for 25 years, without compensation, to ensure that through the Village, some of Utah's most desperate children would be taught the skills they need to succeed in school, on the job, and in their own families.

Even as her declining health limited her involvement in daily operations, Lila would still attend each graduation from the Village, in her wheelchair, and give the child a handmade quilt.

Although she has passed on, her legacy of unflinching advocacy and love for children remains in the changed lives of all Village children.