‘Not what you think they are’: Inside a teen facility facing years of red flags, mistreatment claims

Nestled deep in the Ontario countryside, on the outskirts of a small, rural town, sits a facility that few outsiders know exists, marked only by a small, metal letterbox and an unassuming wire gate.

Blink and you’ll miss it.

Beyond the modest entrance, little else belies its true purpose — a weathered ranch house and a few scattered outbuildings, hemmed in on every side by towering pines and white birch trees. This woodsy setting is billed as a sanctuary for troubled teens, where wellness and structure are intended to replace chaos and turmoil.

Because this is Venture Academy, where families from across Canada send their children, desperate for help in the face of addiction, mental health crises, or behaviours that have spiralled out of control. But for those left there, this is also where, some say, they suffered psychological and emotional harm under the guise of therapeutic rehabilitation.

“You’re unable to solve a problem. You’re trying to do that so desperately for someone you love so much,” Winnipeg mother Connie Lester tells Global News. Lester’s daughter, Cally, died of a drug overdose in 2020, seven years after her parents pulled her out of Venture. Lester doesn’t blame Venture for Cally’s death, but says attending the Barrie campus seems to have exacerbated her daughter’s problems.

“And then there’s this group that says, yeah, I can do that…. Well, these people are not what you think they are.”

Government documents reveal officials have had concerns about the company for years. Venture Academy’s monitoring and licensing inspections from the past five years, conducted by Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) and obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed the Ministry found 147 breaches of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act in 2024 and 2025 – including children not being informed of their rights, communication being monitored and a repeated lack of documentation. In addition, there have been at least four allegations of sexual assault connected to Venture since 2010.

While teen anxiety and depression are on the rise in Canada, wait times for publicly-funded treatments are also soaring. Half of Canadians wait up to a month for ongoing counselling services, and in some jurisdictions, children and youth wait longer than adults, according to Canadian Institute for Health Information data. In March, a report from Ontario’s auditor general found those with the most severe needs waited, on average, 105 days in 2023-2024 for live-in treatment — up from 94 days the year before.

This leads desperate families to turn to private, or for-profit, treatment centres to help their struggling child, while the public system cannot.

Launched as one such option in 2001 by B.C. resident Gordon Hay, Venture Academy vows to address everything from drug and alcohol use, mental health issues to smartphone addiction. The first month can cost families more than $15,000, and it’s about $10,000 for every month after that.

Venture occupies a somewhat unique position as one of Canada’s only for-profit treatment centres that solely targets youth struggling with a range of behavioural problems. Other facilities operate mostly in the non-profit sector or cater to more specialized niches, such as only treating mental health or addiction issues.

Little is known about the scale of the for-profit, or private, industry. In contrast, Lise Milne, social work professor at the University of Regina and the research chair for the Child Trauma Research Centre, says that there’s more oversight for non-profit companies, due to provincial legislation, policies and standards for transparency.

But a Global News investigation spanning six months laid bare one program that seemingly struggled to manage the complex needs of children in their care, instances of sexual abuse, staff who say they weren’t adequately trained, and allegations of a residential program run with little oversight. The investigation analyzed hundreds of pages of documents and spoke to 67 attendees, parents, staff and host parents across each of Venture Academy’s three locations.

“There was nothing therapeutic about the program.”

“There was nothing therapeutic about the program… holistic, therapeutic, positive, supportive — any of those synonyms should never have been used by that facility,” says one former Ontario staff member who asked not to be named due to fear of repercussions from Venture.

Company officials did not respond to specific questions from Global News, citing “reasons of confidentiality and privacy.” They did, however, provide a statement that described itself as a “lifeline for youth and families in crisis.”

“With a strong parental and family component, Venture Academy has supported nearly 2,000 youth and families from across Canada since inception,” the statement said.

Two former students told Global they wouldn’t be where they are today if it weren’t for the program, but neither agreed to go on the record. Those youth would not go on the record because they did not want to impede future job prospects by being associated with Venture.

But dozens of others described to Global News an isolating and punitive experience where they were held against their will, despite informed consent for treatment being a requirement under Canadian law — including for youth.

“The only places where we force you to stay have typically judicial processes that go along with that forced deprivation of your liberty,” says Mary Birdsell, executive director at Toronto’s Justice for Children and Youth.

“And from what I understand here, this is very extreme deprivation of your liberty.”

Interspersed with stock images of smiling young people and equally elated-looking adults, Venture Academy’s website heralds itself as “Canada’s leading program for struggling teens.” Page after page is replete with the language of modern therapy — promises of a “holistic approach” to treatment and a “Milieu environment,” a method utilizing safe, structured group settings to help people learn healthier ways of thinking and behaving.

A stay at Venture begins with a 30-day assessment, billed as a “crisis stabilization” period. Youth can only communicate with their parents through letters during this time and undergo “psycho educational” testing, which is outsourced to a local psychology clinic. Based on those results, Venture says it develops schooling and treatment plans for the child and also recommends a length of stay between three and twelve months, during which time they are billeted to local host parents. Some teens, however, say they stay a lot longer.

Days on the Venture campus are typically seven hours long, according to a sample Ontario campus schedule seen by Global News, and are predominantly spent doing “academics & therapy.” At 4 p.m., they’re picked up by host parents, whom the company employs as independent contractors. Monthly payments for host parents, according to a Venture job listing from late May, start at $2,100, and the only qualifications necessary appear to be a valid driver’s licence, Level 1 first aid, and a criminal record check with a vulnerable sector search.

Since launching in Kelowna, B.C., Venture opened two further locations near Red Deer, Alta., and in Southern Ontario. Its Kelowna location shuttered in 2021. Venture would not say why that location closed.

The website dedicates several pages to the pitfalls of boot camp-style programs — the kind that have come under scrutiny in recent years in both the U.S. and Canada, such as Robert Land Academy, a private military-style boarding school in Ontario that closed in June eight months after media reporting on abuse allegations.

But some former staff and youth described Venture as exactly that: a boot camp. Many hallmarks of those institutions, such as collective punishment, strict rules and control, lack of access to the outside world, gruelling CrossFit sessions and restricted communication with families, were allegedly part of Venture’s program, while promising a “safe and supportive” therapy-based model.

“[We were told to treat youth] like they don’t exist, they are not human, that they have no rights,” one former staff member says.
But allegations of mistreatment go further than a boot camp masquerading under the guise of a therapeutic treatment facility.

Venture’s Ontario campus, which appears to be the company’s largest, has come under repeated scrutiny.

In 2020, regional children’s aid agency Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions (SMFC) investigated Venture, for reasons the agency would not disclose, alleging it was “causing risk of emotional harm to [youth].”

Of the 13 youth interviewed in the investigation, five were verified by SMFC to be at risk of emotional harm. As a result, the agency issued 26 recommendations to Venture, which included making sure the company obtains youth’s informed consent, enhancing its program to allow social interaction and community engagement and providing adequate training to its host parents.

An SMFC spokesperson would not answer specific questions due to privacy concerns, but acknowledged “any verification of risk of emotional harm is concerning.”

“I started to realize, ‘I can’t talk to people anymore. I can’t express my emotions. I don’t really feel anything.’”

Months later, the campus was referred to the MCCSS Investigations and Enforcement Unit, which identifies high-risk residential sites, due to a “high amount of non-compliances” and concerns over its licensing, according to Ministry documents. Issues were raised in various areas, including cameras in homes, the removal of children’s shoes, host parents yelling at children, and youth being prevented from sharing personal information with one another.

“These practices may be viewed as unreasonable and contrary to the child’s rights,” the report said.

The company spent 15 months under provincial review. MCCSS would not answer any questions about this review or its outcome.

In January this year, SMFC again visited the Ontario campus after receiving a “referral for concerns.” The overarching themes, according to email correspondence obtained by Global News, included basic rights, children’s identities being respected, licensing and an “overly restrictive program.”

Chris Clarke, spokesman for Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, declined to answer specific questions about the MCCSS reports but provided a statement about the government’s improvements to the child welfare system.

Global News spoke to 16 youth who attended Venture’s Ontario campus, the location of which Global is not identifying because it houses minors.

Thirteen of them said that rules were so stringent that their access to the bathroom was restricted, and some urinated themselves as a result. A girl spoke of soaking her pants with blood because she was menstruating and wasn’t allowed to visit the washroom. In its 2020 investigation, the SMFC found that the entire class could lose their lunch or free time for the same length of time a youth used the washroom, outside of prescribed times.

Only three say they received one-on-one weekly therapy that they were promised. Fifteen say their mental health worsened after leaving the program.

“I’ve had some long-lasting negative effects from the program, and I think the reason I didn’t realize that at first is because I did come out like a complete 180 of the person I was,” says Grace McDonald, who attended the campus in 2019 while suffering from depression.

“My first reaction [was] my parents’ first reaction as well. ‘Oh my God, the program helped so much. That’s great.’ And then I started to realize, ‘I can’t talk to people anymore. I can’t express my emotions. I don’t really feel anything.’”

Five former staff members say management stifled dissent and were told that if teens brought forward complaints, they were not to be believed.

The promised individualized care by a team of professionals, including psychologists, clinical therapists, youth workers and teachers, was scarcely offered according to some attendees. Instead, they say, therapy was a place for their vulnerabilities to be weaponized — with therapy notes shared amongst staff.

Several parents told Global News they believe Venture misled them about the program’s therapy-based offering.

Heather Burchill-McDonald, Grace’s mother, acknowledges that attending Venture may have saved her daughter’s life, and Grace “learned things” there. But “a lot of damage [was] done” at the same time.

“I didn’t call Venture and say my kid is misbehaving and I need help — I called and said my daughter is ill and she needs inpatient treatment,” she says.

“And they would have led me to believe that’s what happened there.”

Venture’s welcome package document outlines strict rules — contact with families restricted to letters and pre-scheduled phone calls, uniforms, chaperoned outings — are laid out between inspirational buzzwords — live, inspire, create! — and a Walt Disney quote about the virtues of “moving forward.”

The document stipulates that youth have the right to “give informed consent for service,” an obligation of treatment for a Canadian of any age with capacity. However, the Venture agreement forms reviewed by Global News were only signed by guardians, which include authorizations for program aspects such as assessment, medical examinations, and searches.

That’s also despite the fact that when a child turns 16, they can legally withdraw from parental control in many provinces, including Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.

In a 2024 report, MCCSS labelled Venture’s 2022 welcome package “severely deficient” and not compliant with the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, because it “fails to outline a child’s rights.” That report stated that Venture pledged to add “revised rights and responsibilities” to the welcome package, and it would be “reviewed at all new admissions.” But in 2025, inspectors noted that “there was no evidence that the licensee considered any information or supports to help the youth exercise their rights.”

That’s where experts say Venture may be breaching the law.

“It’s not simply a matter of, ‘You have a legal right to be informed of treatment that you are receiving.’ It’s also a human rights issue,” says Mary Birdsell.

“You have to be informed of what the treatment is, what it’s meant to do… how long they might be there.”

Isabelle Lebrun, who spent 18 months at Venture Academy, says she tried to refuse to consent to treatment and did not sign her release of information form for about a year, but regardless, remained enrolled.

These days, Lebrun speaks with a self-assured confidence of her time there, her face framed by glossy brown hair and acetate glasses.

“I had a lot of stuff happen to me when I was a kid, and nothing, nothing is worse than… the stuff that I went through at [Venture],” she says, describing the isolation and punishments.

Letters home were often withheld, youth told Global News — they believe it was because they were critical of the program. Three staff confirmed Venture employees read teens’ letters. They say phone calls were also monitored and restricted. Youth raised concerns about a lack of private communication to ministry officials in 2022, 2024 and 2025, documents confirm.

“[…] Communication is treated as a privilege earned based on behaviour, rather than a right,” the 2024 report says, before stating that Venture had not adequately provided evidence of how they ensure letters are not examined.

Burchill-McDonald says she was told not to believe any negative feedback from her daughter about the program, and that the teens were “all manipulative” and it was a “tactic that they all use” so they get sent home.

Research has linked punishment-based programs for youth, such as boot camps, with lasting psychological harm, including long-term difficulties with trust, self-esteem, anger management and trauma symptoms that persist into adulthood.

But although Venture rejects the term as a description of its offering, experts say the punitive environment and strict controls described by youth and staff are akin to those programs — which can often harm youth more than they help.

“Compliance-based programming, those sort of rewards [and] punishment-based programmings simply don’t work,” says Lise Milne.

“They actually are counterintuitive. They are counterproductive for youth who often emerge with more concerning behaviours.”

Landen Brennan, who attended Venture Ontario in 2023 when he was 16, says he began self-harming while he was in the program.

Now 18, Brennan is soft-spoken and speaks through a curtain of magenta hair. Openly gay, he says his host father “screamed at me that I should act more like a man.”

He spoke of “heavy religious undertones” and a “don’t say gay environment” on campus that left him feeling unsure of his identity. Venture Academy marketing material from an unknown date, found online, promotes itself as a Christian institution.

However, he says the therapy he received was “the best part, if the only good part, of Venture,” and that he received 45-minute sessions most weeks.

But his mother, Stephanie McGillvray-Brennan, says his depression worsened after he left the program.

“As soon as he got out of Venture, he was so unsure of himself, he would question everything, and he would say daily, ‘Mom, am I a bad person?’”

Housing youth with local families is a key but controversial part of the Venture experience. Teens say they were often forced to spend most of their time alone in their rooms, weren’t fed sufficiently, were exposed to drugs and alcohol and lived in basements or makeshift rooms. One girl told Global News she slept in a common room with a curtain as a partition. Another girl said she was forced to sleep in only her underpants for 12 weeks — a punishment for running away.

Venture’s Ontario campus is licensed as a foster care agency — a category that, according to the allegations of staff and youth, could put it at odds with Ontario law.

Foster agencies are not allowed to deprive children of basic needs, including food or the use of a toilet, unless it is necessary to prevent immediate harm. They also cannot withhold or threaten to withhold visits or communication from family members. Basements are not allowed to be used as bedrooms.

“I question oversight because it’s hard for me to imagine how the types of… experiences that youth are sharing now have not been followed up on and that the organizations have been able to continue to operate […],” says Lise Milne.

Several of these same concerns were raised in MCCSS reports.

The 2022 report found that youth being confined to their rooms for hours at a time was common practice at three out of five homes investigated, and that children were “only allowed out of their rooms when they get permission.”

It also observed that “all bedroom doors are equipped with alarms that sound when the door is opened.” It was a common concern, relayed by 10 youth to Global News. Some say that prevented them from using the bathroom at night.

Parker Pennington, 18, who attended Venture Academy’s Kelowna campus in 2021 when he was 13, says he would have to defecate in his underwear and “just take it to the garbage.”

He recalls being treated like a “caged animal” at his host parent’s house, and says his experience was defined by violence and fights.

After Parker returned home, he was unable to sleep alone, says his mother, Sarrah Pennington. Pennington tells Global News she feels ripped off “financially, emotionally, psychologically.”

“I just feel completely taken advantage of, preyed upon, and my son was the one who suffered from this,” she adds.

Host parents themselves say they weren’t given sufficient training to deal with at-risk youth, other than receiving an information binder, a book by renowned physician and addictions specialist Gabor Mate and developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld and an orientation.

Global News spoke to 10 Venture host parents. Most requested anonymity because their contracts prohibit them from making any derogatory statements about their former employer, “whether or not such… statements are true.”

Two host parents spoke of being under pressure to take more children than they could responsibly house. One host parent mentioned that he had put a bed in his dining room.

Court records also reveal there is at least one allegation of sexual abuse of a minor committed by a host parent associated with the Ontario campus, which occurred in 2011, and three associated with the company’s Kelowna campus since 2010. [A second story in this series will look at this in more detail.]

In 2014, a host parent by the name of Victor Lucero was arrested in the high-profile bust of a massive drug importation network directed by Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Lucero, a real estate agent, helped to arrange a mortgage deal with the crime ring for a warehouse, he confirmed to Global News, but was not involved any further.

“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong clients,” he says.

In April 2016, Lucero pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of crime with a value over $5,000 and received a 19-month conditional sentence. Lucero would not tell Global News if children were in his home when he was arrested and declined to answer any further questions.

Venture initially removed youth from Lucero’s home, but reintroduced them after he was convicted, according to former staff and a teen who was in his home in late 2016. Correspondence shared with Global News shows that Ontario executive director Louise Beard and Teresa Hay, Venture’s managing director, were made aware of the court case in 2016 after a staff member sent them a news article about his charges. Within a week of reporting the case to leadership, that same employee says she was fired.

MCCSS and Venture declined to answer questions about Lucero. Venture also declined to answer questions about the staffer’s termination.

Like host parents, those who run Venture do not seem to be specifically trained in youth mental health, either.

Gordon and Teresa Hay started Venture Academy in 2001 after working as foster parents for high-needs youth in B.C. for two years. Gordon holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandon University, Global confirmed. A 2014 bio from the Venture website states that he majored in psychology and physical education. His wife, Teresa, who had management experience in the fitness and service industries, ran Venture’s Kelowna campus until it shut down in 2021.

Ontario Executive Director Louise Beard’s website biography, which was recently removed from the website, stated that she worked for the Department of National Defence (DND) and has “extensive training and education in trauma and addictions.” DND confirmed Beard worked for them as an addiction counsellor periodically between 2002 and 2005.

Beard, as well as the Hays, declined to answer questions from Global News.

Staff, however, spoke strongly about Beard’s management style.

“It was probably the most destructive, personally psychologically damaging place to work ever,” says one former employee, who quit.

“I was gaslit and told that I have no idea what I’m talking about and that these kids are horrible human beings and they’re just playing you,” says another former employee, who also left the company.

There are contradicting reports on how many therapists the Ontario campus employed. Youth and staff say the only on-site therapist was a woman named Naomi Hoffenberg, who confirmed to Global News that she served as a part-time contractor, working primarily two days per week between 2014 and 2022. Hoffenberg added that other therapists also provided services — including Beard — and confirmed therapy conversations were summarized in “sessional notes” that were accessible to staff but there she wasn’t aware of any incidents related to the use of them.

Beard did not respond to questions about what qualifications she had to provide therapy.

Joseph Mete, who says he worked at the Ontario campus between 2009 and 2018, says that he provided counselling for “two or three hours a day” while completing a two-year course in social service work at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont.

He says he was encouraged to “diagnose the kids with something,” and pass feedback to parents that they should keep the child in the program, even if they didn’t need it. Another staffer, in Alberta, told us they simply Googled worksheets for group therapy sessions.

Mete eventually left the job because he didn’t agree with the way the children were being treated. He believed many children “worsened” while at Venture.

Cally Lester was just 21 when she died of an accidental drug overdose.

“It’s a desperate attempt when parents have to go to that extreme to put their kids in a place to help them or that you think is going to help them,” her mother, Connie Lester, tells Global News.

“Unfortunately, there are people out there that take total advantage of those parents.”

Cally’s father, Jeff, says he decided to pull Cally from the program in 2013 after he received a call from the Barrie police, who had returned her to her host parents’ home after she’d run away.

“The officer said himself, ‘If you’re a parent who cares for your child, you would never have them in such a [place], no matter how bad they’ve behaved…I was on the plane the next morning,” he says.

Everything about Cally, from her moods to her drug use, worsened after she returned home, both parents say.

Experts say that’s a hallmark of punishment-based programs.

Four experts consulted by Global News about Venture Academy raised concerns with the way the program was being run, based on allegations by attendees and former staff.

Lise Milne says the program appeared to be “trauma-inducing” rather than trauma-informed.

“The program elements of Venture Academy seem very contrary to what our research over the past several decades, as well as practice wisdom, has shown us about what actually works for youth who have challenging behaviours.”

Based on Global’s findings, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow researcher Sarah Golightley likens Venture to facilities operating in the multi-billion-dollar business in the U.S. called the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI) — a sector that is in the midst of a reckoning over decades of abuse allegations.

Golightley, who has spent the last decade examining North America’s TTI industry, says control is a key “to the functionality of these programs”, where controlling what youth can do and say, and every aspect of their day, pressures people to “fall into line.”

“The institutions themselves are set up in such a way that can be really traumatizing … because people are being stripped of their autonomy and they’re being coerced to comply.”

There are success stories of youth who attended Venture and turned their lives around, according to the company’s website and two youth who spoke to Global News. Five parents who learned about this investigation also contacted Global to share their positive experiences. Four did not want Global to speak with their children to corroborate their information. One youth did not want to be identified, which prohibited his parent from being named.

One parent, Gail Waldman, says she sent her 12-year-old son to Venture in 2021 because he was loud and violent. He returned home after eight months as a different child — quieter, but more social.

“He spoke at his turn when it was his turn, he didn’t talk…We could really sense that there was a shift in the way that he was behaving,” she says.

“It was a very positive experience for us as a family.” Waldman would not allow reporters to speak to her son.

Venture Academy spokeswoman Karen Stevenson initially agreed to an on-camera interview for this story.

Days later, however, the company published a community bulletin on its website about Global’s reporting that included several false statements. Among them, Venture alleged reporters were prioritizing “negative narratives without the corresponding evidence,” even though Global had not yet provided any findings to the company. Venture also alleged that reporters were not listening to parents’ positive experiences and specifically accused reporters of declining to engage with the father of a former attendee. Only one father contacted Global, which resulted in a 32-minute interview, recorded by the reporter. The father said Teresa Hay had asked him to share his positive experience, but because his son did not want to be identified, the father was not able to be named.

At the same time, the company published information on its website stating it would soon transform into a non-profit organization and would be forming a “youth mental health advisory committee.” It also removed the location of its Barrie campus from Google Maps and later removed mention of all staff from its website.

Venture later declined to answer all questions, asking Global to refer to a provided statement instead – which outlined their program, ethos and operations.

“Both locations reinforce our commitment to safety, quality, and responsive care,” the statement said.

The company also quoted a survey of parents and youth who participated in the program between 2016 and 2024. Without disclosing any methodology or sample size, it found that 99 per cent of parents felt that their child benefited from the program, and 97 per cent of youth agreed or strongly agreed they had a positive overall experience during their time at Venture.