"S.T.E.P. Out of Hurt and into Healing"

The needs of abused and offending youth are addressed through:

1. Structure
2. Supervision
3. Therapuetic Individual, group and family therapy
4. Case management
5. Recreation therapy
6. Medication management

Sexual offense-specific therapy focuses on relapse prevention as well as social skills development, anger management, substance abuse, criminal thinking, and other community reintegration.

The goal of the S.T.E.P. Program is to assist seriously troubled youth by decreasing their risk to offend again through improving their psychological, behavioral, and social functioning.  Staffing is more intense for the offender programs.

Admission Criteria

Admission Criteria for the S.T.E.P. Program includes:

1. Youth and adolescents ranging from 6-18 years age
2. Established need for medication management
3. Exhibiting unmanageable behaviors, including violence or sexual acting out
4. Considered to be a anger to self or others in a less structured setting
5. IQ of at least 70
6. Victims of physical or sexual abuse or neglect
7. Multiple failed placements
8. Unsuccessful in traditional settings
9. Needing more active involvement with family
10. Family willing to participate in program
11. History of sexual offending
12. Lacks skills and attributes necessary for forming and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships
13. High levels of aggression
14. Evidence of Violence
15. Signs of Depression

Primary Features of the S.T.E.P Program:

1. 24 hour supervision
• 1 staff member: 2 residents
2. Juvenile Sex Offending Therapy
3. Behavior Analysts
4. Psychosexual Assessments
5. Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Licensed Professional Counselors
6. State-of-the-art Survillance System
7. On call Psychiatric Physician and Nurse
8. Medication management