Core Programming
Our programming emphasizes:
- trauma-informed practice
- social-emotional-moral learning
- character education
- developmental assets for healthy growth
- Six Principles of Partnership– respect, voice, individual strengths, slow to judgment, power sharing, and process
Our evidence-based, trauma-informed practices include Risking Connection/Restorative Approach® (Traumatic Stress Institute/Klingberg Family Centers). Social-emotional-moral learning and character education are foundational to our ESSENTIAL© Program. 40 Developmental Assets® (Search Institute) guide our understanding and practice related to helping children develop the internal and external assets needed to mature into healthy adulthood with resiliency. And, the Six Principles of Partnership created by Appalachian Family Innovations are central to our family engagement programming and aftercare.
The ChildTrauma Institute and the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics© also inform much of our work with youth experiencing complex trauma. Reclaiming Youth International and the Circle of Courage® are foundational to our understanding of the basic psychological needs of all persons: belonging, mastery, independence, generosity. And now we understand that the basic need for fun and excitement joins the list as a significant human need. Our challenge with adolescents and teenagers is to help them meet their need for fun and excitement in healthy, positive ways.