By Danielle Beurteaux
On a recent visit to the Children's Village, Thomas Martin had dinner with a young teenager. Only later did he find out that this 14-year-old boy had once been a breath away from going to jail. He was sent to the Children's Village instead.
Half of the 500 residents of the Children's Village have committed crimes, and many have endured abuse, neglect and abandonment. Where others might have given up, Martin, 45, a partner at $4 billion long-short equity fund Level Global Investors, saw an opportunity to help.
"Send a 14-year-old to jail, and the odds of that person coming out and being a productive member of society are not high," he says.
The Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York, is a residential program for children who are on the verge of dropping out of society. It gives these kids education, mental health services, job training and, in some cases, foster home placement. The organization's other locations in and near New York City offer shelters and other programs. For many, arrival at the Children's Village is the best—and often the last—chance they'll have to get help and get their lives on track. "These kids are involved in violent crime, drugs, abuse," says Martin. "They lack structure; they have all these things going on when they get to the Children's Village."
When Martin was on a quest to find the right organization to get involved with, friend and golf partner Michael Schaenen, principal of Somerset Capital Advisors, suggested Martin check out the Children's Village, where Schaenen serves as vice chairman of the board.
Martin liked what he saw and signed on as a board member in 2006. "It became clear to me that this was something I wanted to do, and I could have a more profound impact than just writing a check," he says.
Originally called the New York Juvenile Asylum, the Children's Village was created in 1851 to aid the city's thousands of homeless immigrant children. The name changed in 1905 when the organization moved to its current Dobbs Ferry location. The site was designed to resemble a village, with separate buildings for housing, schooling and administrative services. Jeremy C. Kohomban, president and chief executive of the Children's Village, realizes that not many people embrace its difficult work, but Martin did just that and has become a force for innovation.
But beyond that, says Kohomban, Martin really has faith in these kids. "He believes that our kids can make it in the same way many of us have made it."
Martin is a particular fan of the Assistance Dog Training Program, where boys mold Labradors into service dogs for the disabled and learn valuable skills and responsibility. "This is the first time they've felt real, unconditional love, and then they have to give those dogs away," he says. "But they handle it with such grace, and it actually makes them feel good about themselves."
Martin sees the bigger picture of rescuing the Children's Village kids now and ending the cycle of neglect—mainly, that the long-term costs of not doing so are too high for the kids and for society. "We have an obligation to stop these kids from doing things that ultimately become damaging to all of us in the long run."