Safely Home Program Overview

Guiding Principles

The return of the client to a home of their choice is the goal of Safely Home and the client’s placing agency. However, this goal is only feasible after the client has developed behavior conducive to successful living in a home.

The overlying treatment theme which guides the program is the importance of instilling an internalized set of "Family Moral Values" in the young men in our care. Safely Home has blended principles found in “moral family values” and the work of other pioneers in the area of offender specific treatment, as a foundation for programming. These values include, but are not limited to, the following principles:

• Respect for the lives, bodies, property and thoughts of self and others.
• Each person has dignity, and should therefore be respected in thought, word, and action by everyone that they come in contact with, as well as by themselves. People are to be respected and treated as individuals.
• Morals are developed through focused, purposeful interactions and role-modeling by others. Strong families are based on the commitments between the individuals. A major emphasis in the life of a child is to develop sound, solid morals/values as preparation for adulthood. This responsibility belongs to each and every staff member while working with the children in our care.
• Unconditional Positive Regard leads to love, compassion, and understanding. Nurturing develops self-esteem, confidence and independence. It is the underpinning of all interaction with children in our care. By building the esteem of the young men, we assist them to see the power and responsibility that they possess to shape their own future, regardless of what their past may have been.
• Spirituality is Essential. Everyone needs some entity upon which to draw inner strength and peace. Spirituality forms another component of the Moral Development needed for a strong family orientation. This principle links all the other individual principles of Safely Home into a conglomerate unit of thought.

These principles are not teachable solely through rote memory, but through the role-modeling of each adult that comes into the lives of the children each day. The staff employed at Safely Home need to have the cognitive understanding of the Moral Family Principles held as important by the agency and be able to demonstrate and refer to the principles daily as they interact with the clients.

When a child is placed at Safely Home, we are entrusted with the responsibility of offering a treatment milieu to that child and his family. In addition, and of equal significance, we are entrusted with a tremendous portion of the parenting of the child while he is under our care. We must not only accept the responsibility of assisting the child with the developmental milestones inherent with this time of his life, but also the responsibility of working with the family to help them in embellishing the milestones of the child’s past, which have often been neglected or forgotten

Implementation of Principles

Safely Home addresses aggressive behavior. This can be defined as actions which help to relieve the client from inner pain and emotion anguish. Very often, this behavior is learned as a survival skill from a history of abuse in the family. The aggression generally has been developing for a period of years over the course of the client’s life and is therefore deeply ingrained in the client’s behavioral repertoire. Thus, change will be difficult. Since the neglect from the past has also led to a mistrust of adults, new clients will have extreme difficulty in believing that the staff are being truthful and honest with them. Rather than believing the adults, or even their peers, the client will often test all of the boundaries and limits of the program in order to understand their place in the program. Consistent, compassionate, cohesive, accepting, and empathetic responses to the client will set the foundation for a safe, secure living experience. By doing this, the opportunity to develop therapeutic relationships between the child and the adults will be fostered. It is these relationships which affect the depth and swiftness of the sought after changes in the youth. Trust between child and adult is essential, it is the beginning point for treatment.

The treatment program is multifaceted and multi-layered. The four main program facets are: 1) Significance of the Child Care Worker, 2) Environment, 3) Daily Structure, 4) Internalization of Family Living Skills and Values. Each facet is to be of consistent and uniform between all of the adults at the agency. In addition, each employee’s job responsibilities delineate a different role on the Team, and therefore, a different role in the treatment plan of the boy as an individual and as a member of the group.

Intervention Structure

The behavior addressed at Safely Home has often been learned as a survival skill, borne out of the history of neglect in the family. The aggression generally has been developing for a period of years over the course of the client's life, and is therefore deeply ingrained in the client's behavioral repertoire. Thus, change will be difficult.

Since the neglect from the past has also led to a mistrust of adults, new clients will have extreme difficulty in believing that the staff are being truthful and honest with them. Rather than believing the adults, or even their peers, the client will often test all of the boundaries and limits of the program in order to understand their place in the program.

Consistent, compassionate, cohesive, accepting, and empathetic responses to the client will set the foundation for a safe, secure living experience. By doing this, the opportunity to develop therapeutic relationships between the child and the adults will be fostered. It is these relationships which affect the depth and swiftness of the sought after changes in the youth.

Consistency and cohesiveness are best achieved through the strict adherence of the Safely Home daily schedule. This schedule is outlined to offer clients the closest replication of a home-like setting that we feel is achievable. In addition, it affords the young man with many opportunities to test and hone the newly learned alternatives to the behaviors that led to placement.The daily schedule offers many inherent opportunities for therapeutic interventions. These moments are heightened during the times which have the most intensive transitions, such as:

• Wake-Up
• Meals
• Activity Times
• Structured Activities
• Unstructured Activities
• Bedtime Routines

Therapeutic interventions offered to redress the anxieties of daily life, as well as the past behaviors, include:

Transition / Mini-Groups

These brief encounters (2-10 minutes) take place at the beginning and end of any activity which will cause a hange of venue for the clients. This time is to assist the client to bring one activity to closure, and to prepare for the next.

ASSET Social Skills Group

The ASSET Social Skill Training system consists of a series of skills to give adolescents “prosocial” competencies. The skills involve specific steps that are psychologically designed to increase the likelihood of a successful social interaction for the participant. Each skill is rehearsed through role plays until the student has mastered the skill.The skills are:

• Giving Positive Feedback
• Giving Negative Feedback
• Accepting Negative Feedback
• Resisting Peer Pressure
• Problem Solving
• Negotiation
• Following Instructions
• Conversation

Psyche - Ed Group

The Psyche-Ed groups are facilitated by the college interns and professional staff, with support from other Safely Home employees. They are used as a learning tool for both the client and the intern, offering a forum for expression of theory and practical application of it. The content of the groups is still based around ways for the client to become less aggressive, but often introduces a more educational perspective to the idea, grounded in the intern’s present course of study at school.

Therapy Groups

These groups are facilitated by Social Workers at the LSW or LISW level. The groups form the treatment basis for the specific needs of the clients. Their content includes focus in the areas of Anger Management, Elimination of Sexually Offending Behaviors, Social Interactions, Victim /Survivor Issues, Family Living, Aggression Replacement Training, and Recreation Therapy. Other groups are implemented as needed on topics such as Independent Living, Chemical Dependency Issues, Grieving, etc.

And so it Begins…

All of the information shared up to this point helps in outlining the skeletal parameters of the Safely Home Philosophy. What makes the entire process “come to life” is the mix of child and adult interactions that take place constantly. To be entrusted with the unique opportunity to shape a young life into that of a productive member of the community is viewed as a truly profound responsibility by all staff. The commitment and dedication of the adults at Safely Home, coupled with the yearning for change from the children and families that are served, will afford all who live here the opportunity to “Go Safely Home”.