WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE

FOSTER PARENTS NEEDED

Harborcreek Youth Services is in immediate need of both traditional and treatment foster parents. For information about becoming a traditional foster parent (children of all ages, indefinite length of stay), call Dan Chadwick at (814) 602-7049. To discuss our treatment foster program (troubled adolescents, six- to nine-month placements), call Candace Battles at (814) 460-1966. Both programs are a great opportunity to have a positive impact on the life of a child! Click here to view our foster parenting brochure.

OUR MISSION

Using Sanctuary practices and principles, we help youth and families overcome adversity and build positive futures within a safe, Christian environment that respects and promotes individuality and strengthens community.

OUR PROGRAM

Harborcreek Youth Services is a Type 01 Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility providing treatment to males, ages ten to eighteen years at time of admission, who demonstrate mental health, behavioral, and/or legal problems. We are

• Accredited by the Council on Accreditation

• Licensed by the Department of Public Welfare's Office of Children, Youth, and Families

• Approved by the Department of Public Welfare's Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Harborcreek Youth Services is credentialed to provide services for fee for service counties and/or members of managed care organizations, including

• Community Care Behavioral Health
• Value Behavioral Health
• Community Behavioral Health Network of Pennsylvania
• Magellan Health Services, Inc.

To view our Psychiatric Residential Treatment Program Description, click here.

Harborcreek Youth Services is located in Erie County, Pennsylvania and accepts referrals from counties throughout the state. Special services to distant counties include transportation to and from our agency, teleconferencing, and a Southwest Pennsylvania Family and Court Liaison.

For more information or to make a referral, please call Tim Borgia or Kirsten Turowski, Intake Coordinators, at (814) 899-7664.

OUR COMMITMENT TO THE SANCTUARY MODEL

In 2005, Harborcreek Youth Services implemented changes in its residential program to become a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility as a part of the State Integrated Children’s Services Program. In 2006, our agency achieved accreditation from the international Council on Accreditation (COA). During the past year we have been studying changes to be made to continue the positive transition in our treatment program.

We have identified the Sanctuary Model as a tool for system change. This model has been identified as a promising practice by the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has provided team training on the model to 29 Commonwealth providers, including HYS, through the Andrus Children’s Center Sanctuary Leadership Development Institute.

The Sanctuary Model, developed by Sandra Bloom, M.D. in the 1980s, is a trauma-informed method for creating or changing organizational culture. Although the model is based on trauma theory, its tenets are applicable to work with children across a wide diagnostic spectrum. The Sanctuary Model is based on 25 years of practice in therapeutic communities and incorporates perspectives from trauma, systems, recovery, and business theories.

Because the Sanctuary Model is a cultural model rather than a treatment intervention, Harborcreek Youth Services maintains its structures and guidelines for our clients, as well as consequences, incentives, individual and group therapy services, and all the requirements of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) program.

The Sanctuary Model is the way we organize our treatment and the way we run our organization. We call Sanctuary an everybody model because it is a way of guiding leaders, staff, clients, and families to share the same values and language. Sanctuary is a guide to the way we provide healing to children and to those that care for them. It is, first and foremost, a guide for creating a safe and non-violent environment for our clients and our staff.

The Sanctuary Model is based on seven shared values, or commitments:

• Nonviolence: Being safe physically, emotionally, socially, and morally

• Emotional Intelligence: Managing our feelings so we don’t hurt ourselves or others

• Social Learning: Respecting and sharing the ideas of our teams

• Shared Governance: Shared decision-making

• Open Communication: Saying what we mean and not being mean when we say it

• Social Responsibility: Together we accomplish more. Everyone makes a contribution to the organizational culture

• Growth and Change: Creating hope for our clients and ourselves.

In addition, the Sanctuary Model is guided by four steps to healing, as embodied in the acronym SELF:

• S = Safety. No one can be healed or work well without safety, which includes physical, emotional, social, and moral safety

• E = Emotions. Managing emotions helps us know what we are feeling and to handle our feelings so we don’t hurt ourselves or others

• L = Loss. We recognize the need to find a safe way to acknowledge and grieve the painful things that have happened to us and to move on to a healthy future

• F = Future. We are encouraged to make positive choices to create a better future for ourselves and for the world.

A Core Steering Committee began meeting in March 2008. One of the committee’s first tasks was to establish a Sanctuary implementation timetable with target dates for reaching goals. Implementation activities include

• Completing Sanctuary training for all staff

• Permeating our orientation trainings with Sanctuary principles

• Encouraging all clients and staff to create personal safety plans

• Implementing community meetings and SELF groups throughout the agency

• Increasing family involvement

• Implementing psycho-educational groups using the new curriculum.

In the words of Mother Teresa, “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.” The Sanctuary Model is a means of recovering the peace we may be lacking due to trauma or loss. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and the Erie Community Foundation are assisting our agency in this positive process, and we are grateful for their help.

OUR PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

In 2006, Harborcreek Youth Services initiated an agency-wide Performance and Quality Improvement Program. The program is designed to promote the delivery of quality services and to assist the agency in its efforts to achieve strategic and program goals. Specifically, Harborcreek Youth Services continually monitors its management and operations systems, key quality factors in its service delivery program, program outcomes, client satisfaction, and client outcomes.

Currently, the agency is reviewing 2009 results and is developing goals and accompanying ideal outcomes for 2010. Internal agency sub-committees are meeting regularly and reviewing quality issues central to the agency and its mission, including input from external stakeholders and community members. Monthly progress reports will be available on this website.

Click here to make an on-line donation to benefit our boys!

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Harborcreek Youth Services is affiliated with Catholic Charities, Diocese of Erie. Admissions, provision of services, and client referrals are made without regard to race, color, religious creed, disability, ancestry, national origin (including limited English proficiency), age, or sex.

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Copyright © 2008 Harborcreek Youth Services
Last modified: Wednesday, February 03, 2010