Fletcher Brothers Explained

Pastor Fletcher A. Brothers is a fundamentalist preacher and author from Carthage, New York.^[1]

Freedom Village

Brothers is best known as the founder of Freedom Village USA, a home for troubled teens operated from a Christian Fundamentalist perspective and founded in Lakemont, New York in 1981.^[2] The campus was the site of the Lakemont Academy, a secular boys boarding school. Freedom Village also operated an office in Burlington, Ontario and it had many students from Canada.

Freedom Village came under fire when it was revealed to be paying workers less than minimum wage, and for the punishment practiced on students, and for allegedly abusing child labor laws^[3]

Brothers had to sell the Lakemont property to cover his millions of dollars in debt after he was denied the ability to file for bankruptcy.^{[4] [5]}

The podcast We Warned Them: Freedom Village investigated the legacy of Freedom Village and the life of Fletcher Brothers, revealing their larger connections to the 'troubled teen' industry.^[6]

External links

• Freedom Village USA
• Freedom Village Canada

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pastor Fletcher Brothers . fletcher-brothers.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20071224071354/http://www.fletcher-brothers.com/ . 24 December 2007.
2. Book: Robertson, Michael James. Conquerors for Christ. 9 October 2010. 2006. Xulon Press. 978-1-60034-503-6. 173.
3. News: Moore . Thad . Hobbs . Stephen . Christian teen home relocating to SC mountains punishes students on ‘the woodpile’ . 29 November 2020 . Post and Courier . en.
4. News: Freedom Village property sold for $1.05 million by Gates Community Chapel . 29 November 2020 . The Chronicle Express . 12 December 2019 . en.
5. News: Craig . Gary . Freedom Village: Faith-based organization has long been followed by reporters, and creditors . 29 November 2020 . Democrat and Chronicle.
6. Web site: 2023-04-11 . We Warned Them: Freedom Village . 2023-06-02 . We Warned Them Campaign . en-US.