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NASHVILLE — The Wilson County Youth Ranch has entered into a business agreement with Omni Visions Inc. to help resolve recent management and oversight problems. Omni Visions will manage the care of the caseloads formerly managed by WCYR and will take on the employees of the ranch for at least two years.

Omni Visions is an experienced agency and is one of the largest providers of services to children and families through DCS. Omni Visions operates residential centers in Middle and East Tennessee and provides therapeutic foster care in all parts of the state.

Omni Visions is one of several organizations which DCS provided to the ranch in mid-June as potential management partners. Leaders at Omni Visions and the ranch have been talking for over a month, leading to an agreement reached Monday night during a Youth Ranch board meeting.

Omni Visions has recently acquired the property formerly operating as Youth Emergency Services in Lebanon and will combine some of the management functions of YES and WCYR. Part of the agreement involves closing the main Youth Ranch as a residential center until the Youth Ranch board can renovate it for modern use. Board members and Omni staff are meeting with workers employed by the Ranch today to explain the new agreement and what that means for them.

While the ranch has closed several homes in the last few weeks, Omni Visions also plans to close another location in Rutherford County, leaving just three sites of what were once as many as nine locations. The new arrangement means that for now, the Youth Ranch could accommodate 24 youths. In recent months, the ranch has been treating about 60 children total.

Many of the 34 children there today will remain within the three facilities now under Omni Vision management. Others will be able to rejoin their families with services provided in their homes by Memphis-based Youth Villages and by DCS.