Fletcher Brothers

Freedom Village

He is best known as the founder of Freedom Village (FV), an intensive care home for troubled teens operated from a Christian Fundamentalist perspective and founded in Lakemont, New York in 1981. The campus was the site of the defunct Lakemont Academy, a secular boys boarding school. Freedom Village also operates an office in Burlington, Ontario and has many students from Canada.

Patterned somewhat after the reform homes established by Lester Roloff, FV uses a structure similar to the Roloff Homes. Representatives of FV have been invited to speak at public schools in the United States and Canada.

Parents are allowed to visit their children on a prearranged basis every month after the first three months, and students are asked to commit to remain in the program for one year. Children are required to write one letter a week to their family. Phone calls are limited to one a week made in the presence of a staff member.

The intake process is the interview process where children individually meet with a staff member who will ask several questions regarding their application to Freedom Village. While information about past criminal history, drug use, etc., are factored into the decision to accept a child, the primary criteria for acceptance is a stated willingness to cooperate with the rules and guidelines of the program as well as a commitment to complete a full twelve months of enrollment.

Students are ranked according to a system of levels ranging from no-level to Junior Staff. Students enter the program on C-Level and can either progress upward or downward in levels based on behavior.

During all meals, chapel sessions, school and church sessions the teenagers are segregated by gender. Dating is only allowed among program students once they have obtained a certain privilege level, and with staff approval.

Freedom Village abides by very restrictive standards of personal dress and conduct. Young people are to wear proper fitting, modest apparel. Pastor Brothers also preaches against secular music and has been outspoken against "Christian rock" as well.

FV produces the daily 30-minute "Victory Today" radio show, featuring Flether Brother's preaching and occasional interviews of FV staff or students. His theological outlook is generally informed by an apocalyptic form of fundamentalism which considers the imminent return of Christ as within his own lifetime, a view that is common in fundamentalism.