PHMC is closing Carson Valley Children’s Aid, cutting 96 jobs

Philadelphia’s Public Health Management Corp. plans to close the remaining services at Carson Valley Children’s Aid in Flourtown by mid-September, eliminating 96 jobs, the large health and human services nonprofit said Thursday.

PHMC had already closed Carson Valley’s residential treatment program for youth with behavioral programs. That happened about two years after PHMC acquired Carson Valley, a nonprofit that was founded in 1917 as Carson College for Orphaned Girls.

Now, Carson Valley’s remaining operations are ending by mid-September, PHMC said in a statement to The Inquirer.

The programs include a well-regarded nursery school and childcare center for the general community, a rapid response service for families in crisis, and case management services for students in Philadelphia with excessive school absences, according to Carson Valley’s website.

A notice to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry provides a breakdown of the job cuts: 51 in Flourtown, 33 at 2300 W. Allegheny Ave. in Philadelphia, 10 at 800 W. Olney Ave. in Philadelphia, and 2 at 1314 DeKalb St. in Norristown.

Carson Valley struggled financially for years before it became part of PHMC, logging five straight years of operating losses. In some years, Carson Valley borrowed money from a beneficial trust that owns the campus to repay other debt or to meet operating expenses, according to audited financial statements.

Financial conditions have not improved for Carson Valley, abbreviated as CVCA, under PHMC.

“CVCA’s debt and its operational expenses — including costs associated with managing the 70-acre campus — has become unsustainable for PHMC,” PHMC said in a statement. PHMC considered bankruptcy for the subsidiary, but decided to wind-down operations instead, the statement said.