John Carton

After 35 years of service at BYS, John Carton will retire from the executive director position in March 2008. John began working with BYS as a professional Social Worker in 1972. At that time "Tom Butterfield's Boy's Ranch" had been in operation for nine years, and a second home had been recently purchased and renovated with the help of a federal Law Enforcement Administration grant. Called the "Butterfield West Ranch", the new program was intended to give new opportunity to youths who had been placed in juvenile detention facilities. With that expansion, the overall organization's name was changed to Butterfield Youth Services, and a challenging second decade of Specialized Residential Care began for BYS!

In 1976 John Carton became the BYS executive director, and later that same year BYS opened operations of the North Ranch, as our first residential home for girls.

The decade of the 1980's saw two additional children's residential programs opened, as the South Ranch for girls in 1985 and the New Homestead ranch for younger boys in 1987. The New Homestead home was the first residential facility that BYS designed and built to meet our expanding and increasingly specialized needs. The previous BYS facilities were renovated older homes.

The decade of the 1990's was another significant growth period for BYS, with our design and construction of the Child and Family Therapy Center in 1994. The Child and Family Therapy Center provided a central business and professional services hub for all of the expanding BYS programs, including a new BYS School and a new Boy's Intensive Care Residence for the most severely emotionally disturbed children being referred to BYS. In 1998 the Child and Family Therapy Center was expanded to more than double the size of the BYS School and cafeteria and added a new Girl's Intensive Care Residence.

The BYS Executive Director is responsible for the leadership and management of all programs, services and systems, employing 150 staff; and $5M budget. In addition to the residential treatment and continuum services operated directly by Butterfield Youth Services, BYS is also one-ninth owner of the http MO Alliance for Children and Families http://www.MA-CF.org.