Our Program is Designed with Three Homes
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We understand that change in one environment doesn’t always mean real change has occurred. Children need the opportunity to use their new skills in a variety of settings until they’ve master them. Our three-tiered approach allows them to do just that. By changing environments, but not programs, we allow children to adapt to a new environment, with the people that they have come to trust still intact.
Champion House
Children enter our program through Champion House where we review historical information to identify needs and presenting problems. We use that information to create a treatment plan. Treatment plans are tailor made for each child and integrate specific interventions and supports to eliminate the behaviors that are keeping the child from being successful. We introduce youths to an alternative perspective on their situation, acknowledge distress, reinforce strengths, and provide mechanisms for accessing help and support from caring adults in the home. In this environment, children focus on themselves, their individual goals and building healthy relationships with the adults. Socialization with the other residents is kept to a minimum to reduce distractions. The work of personal responsibility and accountability begins at Champion House. Children are expected to attend therapy with our in-house therapist or one of our community partners, clean their rooms daily, wash laundry twice per week and other duties that would be expected in a family home. Once children are stable and consistently following rules at home and school, they are ready to move to Boys to Men. This can take 3-6 months but varies with each child. A primary indicator of readiness to move is a reduction in the CFARS scores. (Children’s Functional Assessment Rating Scale)
Boys to Men
The newly acquired behavior management skills learned at Champion House, are put to the test at Boys to Men. Here, children are expected to maintain the positive the behaviors learned at Champion House while adjusting to new adults and learning additional skills. At Boys to Men, children still have chores, but also maintain a garden, learn to cook, or do other hobbies of interest. Children are encouraged to join clubs at school or in the community and to live in ways that are aligned with family life. Social skills are a focus of this phase. Many of the children we serve lack an understanding of social cues or societal norms which can cause them to be shunned by others. At Boys to Men we utilize activities and even games to teach children how to behave around their peers and others.
A Cut Above
This location serves as the final stop on the wholeness journey. It is here that we expect to see children get up and make their beds each morning without prompting, speak to others with respect, communicate needs, accept disappointments with appropriate responses and navigate in age-appropriate ways in all settings. The same behavioral standards must be met, but with more freedoms. Children can walk to a neighborhood park or store, ask for high end items for their rooms like televisions or personal game systems and receive a greater allowance. Once children graduate to this phase, they are ready to transition to their forever family.
