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 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) 899-7664,
Extension 402. Both programs are a great opportunity to have a positive impact
on the life of a child!
 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
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Accredited by the Council on
Accreditation
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Licensed by the Department of
Public Welfare's Office of Children, Youth, and Families
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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 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,
Kirsten Turowski, or
Darryl Rickard, 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:
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Nonviolence: Being safe physically, emotionally, socially, and morally
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Emotional Intelligence:
Managing our feelings so we don’t hurt ourselves or others
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Social Learning:
Respecting and sharing the ideas of our teams
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Shared Governance: Shared
decision-making
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Open Communication: Saying
what we mean and not being mean when we say it
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Social Responsibility: Together we accomplish more. Everyone makes a contribution to the
organizational culture
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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:
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S
= Safety. No one can be healed or work well without safety, which
includes physical, emotional, social, and moral safety
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E
= Emotions. Managing emotions helps us know what we are feeling
and to handle our feelings so we don’t hurt ourselves or others
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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
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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
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Completing Sanctuary training for all staff
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Permeating our orientation trainings with
Sanctuary principles
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Encouraging all clients and staff to create
personal safety plans
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Implementing community meetings and SELF groups
throughout the agency
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Increasing family involvement
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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 MISSION
The
mission of Harborcreek Youth Services is to help youth and families build
positive futures within a Christian environment that respects and promotes individuality
and strengthens community.
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.
Click
here to make an on-line donation to benefit our boys!
OUR VALUES
Our policies reflect our values, beliefs, and
principles. These policies, in
addition to our Mission Statement,
are the foundation on which we base our professional conduct, our relationships
with each other and with our clients, and our approach to treatment. For more
information, click on any of the links below.
 You
will need Adobe Reader to view some of the documents on our site. If you don't
already have Adobe Reader, click
here or on the icon at right for a free download and easy installation.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
|
Edward Althof |
Mary Harrison-Youngs |
Elizabeth McLaughlin |
| Dr. Peter Benekos |
Fr. Scott Jabo |
Namon McWilliams |
| Gary Borowy |
Joseph Kloecker |
Carol Morehouse, SSJ |
| Dr. Kevin Courtright |
Scott Landis |
Kristie Nosich |
| James Duchini |
Richard Linse |
Michael Sullivan |
| Benton Elliott |
Mary Maxwell (ex-officio) |
Eva Tucker |
| Sr. Rose Anne Fedorko |
James McGoey |
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