Center for Children and Young Adults

I was a resident here about 2 months ago. This is the worst place in the entire state of Georgia. I am 17 years old and if I we're to go back to jail again, it would be better than being at CCYA. They fed us expired/outdated food and I had the flu while being here. they refused to take me to the doctor, and they made me quarantine for 14 days straight in my room. It felt like a jail cell. They do not care if you have mental health problems because the staff and directors laughed in my face about it. They threatened me by saying that they will make sure I return back to jail because I told them if they didn't take the cameras out of my bedroom that I would report them to my judge. Do not send your kids here!!!!

CCYA is a space that assists adolescents and young adults through positive reinforcement & focused growth. This private facility fosters meaningful relationships with the youth and tries to best prepare them to succeed in today's society. The grounds also feature roughly 2 acres of gardening space overseen by the Cobb County Master Gardeners featuring perennials, annuals, and native plants. They were featured in the 2019 Garden Tours! A lotta good going on here.

I'm currently a resident here and let me tell you large majority of staff here could care less about you. The food we get is semi decent but it's pretty much all donated. We get pizza but it's all cold pizza hut pizza which tastes worse after you have to warm it up. Some of the staff also say some slick things or talk behind other residents backs. And when it comes to mental health the best I've gotten in terms of help was "Do you need to go to the hospital?" And if you are old enough they will not hesitate to call the police to take you to jail for something small that you did out of mental problems they don't care about. Also they basically force you sometimes to do something almost meaningless because of policy's that don't make any sense in a helping manner. And if you continue to refuse something that shouldn't even matter whether you choose to be nice and help or just keep doing your business you'll end up with consequence's. Overall my experience has been pretty negative. I felt a bit better on average at an even stricter place and that's saying something.

I didn’t even want to give a star. But anyways, CCYA doesn’t care about you, the staff(certain ones) are disrespectful, and they treat us like it’s prison inmates. Our needs aren’t met. As far as I’m concerned, the directors will kick you out over RUMORS that aren’t true. CCYA does not care. The food is expired everyday. I order DoorDash almost everyday or sometimes I will literally starve myself. I ate molded apple pie when I first got there not knowing it was expired. The only time we eat fresh food is when the EXPIRED food is OUT.??????????? From experience, I advise you to record every meeting with the directors because they are LIARS. They will tell your caseworker something different or just manipulate the whole situation. As far as the residents…MESSY. As far as the staff…MESSY. The only reason I was there, is because I was suppose to graduate. I’m not done. The rooms are built like the inside of a prison cell, but it’s better than having nothing. It’s very depressing there, it’s like everything evolves around CCYA. If you do go there you can use the HANDBOOK against them. Because they don’t care. Literally.

Terrible place to be. They wasted my time & never helped me get my GED. The staff are rude and in no way discreet. They kicked me out knowing I didn’t have a place to go.They don’t care if you end up homeless. The staff are just as childish as the kids here. They kicked me out because at my court hearing I stated that I wasn’t comfortable with all the negativity going on. The food is disgusting here and During the five months that I was there I spent more money ordering food online than I did anywhere else. Ridiculous!!!