About Our School for Troubled Girls Program

Re-Creation Retreat Center is best known for its “milieu therapeutic” approach; positive peer culture (values-driven community practicing accountability and responsibility to self and others) and experiential therapy. We believe that Positive Peer Culture is the best approach for restoring troubled girls. We effectively work with troubled girls by presenting a solid therapeutic environment in a community-based residential program.

Care – Trust – Serve

The best way to describe our school for troubled girls is to say we are a safe environment where “care”, “trust”, and “service towards others” is the norm. At Re-Creation our students feel safe, know they are cared for and are encouraged and rewarded for serving others. All students are accepted, respected, and given the opportunity to practice the new skills they learn by supporting one another. Our commitment to a highly relational approach to treatment has come from our “strength-based” philosophy. Instead of focusing on bad behavior (what the girls do wrong), we focus on promoting their strengths. We practice “positive peer” relations and promote “community”. Our students receive unconditional acceptance and are rewarded for the promotion of pro-social values.

Our Core Beliefs

Our school for troubled girls approach to treatment is based on our core belief that being a part of positive culture is the best therapeutic environment; positive values and proven principles of “care”, “trust” and “service”. Re-Creation offers a clinically sophisticated program (individual and group therapy) supported by a peer culture where “relationships” are at the center of the healing process. Our professional staff and clinical team members are highly accessible to the students, they are greatly involved in every aspect of the student’s program, and our staff is well-coordinated with each other. The great communication at Re-Creation is one of the hallmarks of our school for troubled girls program and is vital to our success. The Primary Goal at Re-Creation Retreat is to provide a safe, positive environment where each student is able to learn and apply the principles of Accountability, Responsibility, Self Respect, Respect for Authority, and Self Motivation. Naturally, our students are able to successfully transition back to their homes, schools, and communities with positive and lasting results. The efforts of our staff are totally focused on achieving this primary goal through the consistent application of the components of our program. At our school for troubled girls, we have developed a sound program that utilizes a holistic approach with the goal to support the child’s change of behavior. Meaning, they do the work, they make the change, and the results are dramatic. We empower the child to regain order and direction in their lives, as well as foster a sense of self-worth and accomplishment. To help each student build this vital foundation Re-Creation Retreat has developed a comprehensive program centered around three primary objectives.

Our Tools for Success

• 24/7 Therapy
• Recreation and Exercise
• Healthy Food and Sleep
• Service to Others
• Goals, Order & Discipline

By focusing on these key elements we have developed a sound program to assist the resident in developing vital academic, social, and vocational skills as well as learning to participate in community and physical activities.

Through an organized and deliberate process of Education, Therapy, Recreation, and Service each student learns the benefits derived from positive life experiences and the setbacks that result from negative experiences (adversity). These are the building blocks upon which the girl builds a foundation necessary for her to succeed in our program. More importantly, our students learn to transition back to their own homes and reunite with their families, schools, and communities as positive and productive participants. By consistent application of these tools by our staff, each child is able to build on their strengths while learning an appreciation of the positive aspects of self-control and self-discipline.

Choice – Order & Discipline

Just as it takes time for a child’s life to become disordered and undisciplined, it also takes time to regain order and discipline. Through a deliberate and consistent process of communicating rules (norms and acceptable behavior), each child learns to operate through consideration and respect for self and others. Behavior is a choice. We can choose to be considerate and respectful to self and others, or not, but bad behavior has no rewards for the girl in our program. If we choose to live by pro-social values and accept the consequences and responsibility for anti-social behaviors, then we grow. The result of discipline (not to be confused with disciplinary action) is the reality that discipline in our lives brings order. It creates positive opportunities. Yet, discipline is a learned skill and it sometimes needs to be retrained. At our school for troubled girls, rules and expectations are clearly taught to each girl. They earn consequences (loss of privileges) for poor behavioral choices (just like in the real world). And positive rewards (more privileges) are given to the students that exhibit and practice pro-social behavior (being accountable, responsible, and respectful). This is true in the real world . . . when an individual’s behavior is in accordance to acceptable pro-social behavior, positive results will follow.