IT TAKES A VILLAGE Heritage delivers powerful life-changing experiences in a community-based environment preparing students for a productive life. The ancient African proverb, It takes a village to raise a child, conveys the worldview that emphasizes the values of family relationships, parental care, self-sacrificing concern for others, sharing and hospitality. Parents enroll their son or daughter in Heritage because they recognize that they and their child need additional support and a fresh start. Parents see wisdom in having a village--a community offering support, nurturing for their son or daughter and providing tools that help the entire family to heal. The distinctive and carefully designed Heritage Community simulates a typical community that provides students with opportunities and experiences needed to prepare them for a productive life. Students receive individual attention not only from their assigned therapist but from all members of the Heritage Community including home mentors, teachers, academic advisors, equine staff, recreation therapists, kitchen staff, maintenance staff and all other members of the Heritage family. Students and families are loved, cared for and nurtured while the students heal and grow at Heritage. This caring continues after they complete their program and leave Heritage. 2
HERITAGE BY THE NUMBERS Average residential home director tenure 11 YEARS 30+ Years serving families Students per home 10 Semesters 3 Campus acres 19 Students per class 10 3
A FAMILY OF PROFESSIONALS The dedicated and loving Heritage Community of professionals facilitate lasting change for the families we serve. If you were to ask any of our 300+ team members their reasons for working at Heritage, you would hear two common responses: I love the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the students, and I love working with others who are unified with the same purpose in mind. What sets our staff apart is expertise in their respective fields (i.e., all masters-level therapists, certified and licensed teachers) and experience. No other program offers as much experience in the field of adolescent residential care. Our Home Directors, who are responsible for a specific home, bring an average of 11 years of experience to their home! Home Leads, who assist the Home Directors, have worked at Heritage for an average of five years! This is experience you ll find nowhere else. Why stay so long? Heritage staff wants to make a difference and love working with each other. Through our united effort Heritage provides the best for each individual student. When we welcome a new student and their family members into the Heritage family, they immediately become our newest family members. 4
THE HERITAGE COMMUNITY The Heritage Community sits on a serene 19- acre campus nestled at the base of majestic Mt. Timpanogos (11,752 ) to the north and Cascade Mountain (10,908 ) to the east. This peaceful setting provides students and their families a feeling of protection and peace from the world where they can work on overcoming their individual challenges. Students have access within the Heritage Community to an unmatched number of resources. The Heritage Community offers 11 residential homes, two schools, one for each gender-specific program, the Rocky Mountain Café where students eat their meals, a double-sized gym, a 30 rock climbing wall, a computer lab, a worship center for all denominations and a field where they can play softball, football, soccer, etc. The campus also includes equine stables and a riding area, an indoor pool and a state-of-the art, 600+ seat performing arts center where students meet for school assemblies, share newly acquired musical skills and perform an annual full-scale musical production. These facilities are purposefully designed to help students engage in treatment and provide them with individual, life-changing experiences. This unique environment allows students to learn to have healthy relationships with all types of students including those of the opposite gender, which are critical to a student s preparation to return home. Heritage offers separate girls and boys programs (housing, school and programming), but through structured and specially designed interactions between gender-specific programs within the Heritage Community, purpose-driven planned activities help students learn and practice appropriate boundaries and relationships. 5
THE HERITAGE COMMUNITY Heritage s proximity to outdoor recreational activities is unrivaled. Within 15 minutes, students can be on the slopes of the Sundance Ski Resort, hiking through groves of aspen trees, jogging in Provo Canyon or biking along the Provo River. Heritage students have the advantage of easy access to world-class outdoor recreational experiences that inspire their minds and enhance their views of their future. Student also benefit from experiences within the local community. Heritage is located in Provo, Utah, where students regularly attend community events and access community resources like plays, sporting events, the Provo Rec Center and more. I feel I can now properly function in society and I honestly feel like I owe that to Heritage. - Former student 6
THE RELATIONSHIP APPROACH The primary components of a residential treatment center are therapeutics, academics and residential care. Heritage excels in each of these areas while realizing that we can t be successful without having formed strong, meaningful relationships with the students. Founder Jerry Spanos pioneered the relationship model as a therapist in the early 1980s. Jerry learned that his adolescent clients made real, internal change only when they knew he truly cared about them. Nobody can force a student to change; we must first influence them to want to change and then provide the tools that enable them to become successful. Heritage was built with this principle in mind. We hire and continuously train staff to enable themselves to connect with each student. Our trained staff has developed countless deep, personal connections that helped ignite the spark that enabled thousands of adolescents to change their lives. 7
GENDER-SPECIFIC PROGRAMS Offering gender-specific programs within the Heritage Community provides the essential development of the students skills for maintaining healthy, appropriate boundaries between boys and girls. Having both programs on the same campus enables Heritage team members to schedule formal group therapy sessions and other activities with homes from each program. In these sessions students learn the value of wholesome relationships and are prepared for important social experiences they will have when they return home. 8
Mandy is grateful for her time at Heritage and will tell anyone who will listen. Heritage involved the family and kept us up to date with what was happening. I trusted she was being cared for and receiving the help she needed. Mandy has attended community college and wants to be a nurse. She is in the process of finishing here general education requirements so that she may enter their LVN program. - Parents of a former student 9
GENDER-SPECIFIC PROGRAMS THE GIRLS PROGRAM The girls program provides a safe and healing environment for every parent s daughter. The program specifically engenders a nurturing place where the healing process can begin. Many Heritage girls come from traumatic experiences, ranging from a parental divorce to various types of abuse. These girls need the safety, strength and support of the Heritage Community to enable them to lead happy, successful lives. Girls at Heritage often find mentors in their therapist, home staff or other members of the Heritage Community who help the girls find within themselves their intrinsic value. They gain confidence as they complete specially designed challenges and learn from specifically planned activities. With time, the healing takes place and they transform into strong, confident and positive young women. 10
THE BOYS PROGRAM At the core of each boy exhibiting anxiety, depression, oppositional behaviors, is a boy who needs to be loved and feel valued and important. Family mentors and other Heritage Community staff make real, meaningful connections with boys who appear unreachable, might have checked out or lost motivation. Heritage offers the industry s most experienced staff in residential treatment. Our expert therapists and other Heritage family members know how to peel back the layers, treat the real issues and set boys on a course of rediscovery. With the support of the Heritage Community boys learn skills and develop attributes they or their parents never thought possible. They learn to trust others and how to earn the trust of their families. The Heritage Boys Program transforms boys into respectful and respectable young men. 11
SPECIALIZED TREATMENT Within each gender-specific program are two distinctive, world-class and clinically-driven academies; Peers and Elevate. These academies enable Heritage staff to directly target each student s clinical issues to provide proper, specific therapeutic modalities designed for maximum impact and successful outcomes. They offer the clinical sophistication and individuality one would expect from the leader in teen residential treatment. 12
I can t express enough of my gratitude and amazement of your program. You are changing and saving lives! The love, support and professionalism that I feel when I m there, and that was from the first day I set foot there, is so powerful and genuine, that I don t know what to say besides THANK YOU!!!...I now have new hope!!! - Parents of a former student 13
SPECIALIZED TREATMENT Your talented, bright son or daughter has untapped potential but social deficiency and anxiety might prevent them from excelling. The Peers Academy is an innovative academy designed to teach non-neuro typical adolescents how to make and keep friends and to be comfortable and excel in social settings. PEERS was developed by researchers from UCLA who created a model that teaches social skills to adolescents on the Autism Spectrum. Heritage is privileged to be the only residential center officially certified in the PEERS model. Not only does Heritage offer social skills training, it also offers executive functioning training, sensory regulation and emotional regulation using the Zones of Regulation. The combination of these components is a powerful, comprehensive program resulting in significant achievements by the students. Participants in the Peers Academy at Heritage acquire social skills and practice them in a variety of therapeutic settings. New relationship skills develop and are fostered through social activities including after-school clubs, sports, theater and recreational challenges. Through these experiences, students make strides in their social skills, flourish at home and become independent and responsible adults. 14
Elevate Academy is ideal for teenagers struggling to overcome challenges associated with depression, anxiety, bipolar, and other psychological disorders. This clinical academy combines a variety of therapeutic modalities including recreational therapy, equine therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Students in the Elevate Academy log their moods on a daily basis. This unique approach teaches teenagers to become self-aware of thought processes and experiences that lead to negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Students review with their therapist trends in their moods and process how they reacted to mood changes. The data enables the student to discuss how they might improve their responses to future mood changes. Students learn new coping skills and are encouraged to elevate their moods by living a healthy lifestyle, serving others and participating in numerous recreational activities. 15
THERAPY THE CORE OF WHAT WE DO Discovering the root cause of the behavior is at the core of a student s success. Heritage s dedicated therapists meet weekly with each student to dive in to these issues during individual therapy. Therapists help students understand why they think and feel the way they do. This analysis helps students understand their thinking patterns and behaviors. They begin to realize how they can improve. Weekly family therapy allows families to work through their unique dynamics, strengthens relationships and allows follow through on tasks and assignments from the previous week. These weekly individual and family therapy sessions strengthen family relationships. Strong family relationships enable the student to return home with hope for a brighter future. 16
Students also participate in multiple group therapy sessions each week with the students living in their home. Therapists assigned specifically to each home focus on topics that are most beneficial to the group. Within these sessions students learn critical skills on how to express themselves in such a setting. Specialty group therapy sessions accompany the weekly individual, family and group sessions. These therapy sessions allow Heritage student participation in specialty groups, recreation therapy, equine therapy and other therapeutic activities. For example, the Elevate Academy offers the Summit and the Peers Academy offers Elements, both high adventure outdoor programs tailored to the needs of the students within each academy. The comprehensive therapy model at Heritage helps students improve coping skills, family and friend relationships and academic success. 17
...The staff were critical to recapturing the positive spirit of our son. Matthew truly has his whole life ahead of him because of the great experience he had while being a resident of Heritage School. Matthew was so successful that he managed to graduate with his class at his home school and is now in our community college doing very well. He is his old positive self and we feel so blessed... Your program made a profound difference in our family. - Parents of a former student 18
ACADEMICS Remediation & Preparation Academics at Heritage is specifically designed to enable students to catch up on deficient credits and to prepare them to transition to their next academic step, whether it is to their home high school, a traditional day or boarding school or to college. Like a traditional school setting, Heritage rotates class schedules, holds school dances, offers clubs and athletic programs and presents an annual school play. Class sizes are small, usually between 8-10 students, and often include an aide to assist the teacher to help students receive individualized attention. Gender-specific academic programs are held in different buildings to enable the best focus on academic goals and learning. The Heritage academic program restores hope to the students that they can graduate from high school and prepare for future academic success. 19
RESIDENTIAL CARE Training Students to Become Contributing Family Members The residential support offered at Heritage is the catalyst for change in our students. Students form the strongest relationships with residential staff as a result of time and experiences. Heritage residential staff is also the most tenured in the field of adolescent residential care. What does this mean for you and your son or daughter? It means they receive support from the most experienced, patient, timetested and proven staff in the field. They are able to develop meaningful relationships of trust by showing love and by maintaining boundaries. Students learn to love and respect staff as authority figures and as friends to whom they respond and progress. Home Director The love, dedication and experience of Heritage residential staff results in the miracle of changed hearts and transformed lives. The residential model at Heritage, with staff as the parental figures of the home, teaches and prepares students to be contributing members of their families. Home Lead Home Lead 20
SPIRITUAL CARE Finding Healing, Peace & Strength Unique to Heritage is a strong spiritual offering where students can find inner strength and peace through spirituality. Whatever their faith-tradition may be, Heritage offers students a full-time nondenominational chaplain who facilitates a variety of religious and spiritual offerings, including religious services, guest speakers or humanitarian service opportunities that help students find purpose and meaning in their lives. Although many parents ask that their son or daughter attend religious services, such services for students are optional. Our chaplain is available, however, to all students, whether they hold a specific belief system or not, to help them through difficult times of trial or grief. 21
COME AND FEEL THE SPIRIT OF HERITAGE These components make Heritage the clinically sophisticated, integrated program that has strengthened thousands of adolescents and their families through the years. We invite you to come to our campus to meet the caring professionals who make us a powerful community, the village that provides the support needed to facilitate lasting change in adolescents and their families. CONTACT US Contact our admissions team to find out more or to schedule a tour: admissions@heritagertc.org 855-999-3125 facebook.com/heritageschools @heritagertc www.heritagertc.org
A Non-Profit Organization Years ago when many treatment centers began to sell to larger corporations, Heritage founder Jerry Spanos considered what he could do to demonstrate his commitment to his dedicated employees. The solution was to restructure Heritage into a non-profit organization not a non-profit arm of a for-profit corporation but a true 501(c)(3). This business structure ensures Heritage s continued existence with a higher purpose; it was evidence of Jerry s dedication to serving adolescents and their families for years to come. The result was, and continues to be a committed Heritage team that is grateful to be able to serve families throughout the world while working together with staff with whom they love to associate. The benefits of a 501(c)(3) to families include the following: Stability and consistency Heritage will not be sold to a corporation. Investment in the best staff Excess revenues are used to retain the best professionals in the field and dedicated residential staff. Program integrity Heritage needs to maintain an adequate level of enrollment, but clinical staff enrolls those students who are a good fit for Heritage. Purpose Business goals are not focused on revenue and shareholder equity. The Heritage goal is to provide the best possible outcomes for students and their families. 23
855-999-3125 admissions@heritagertc.org facebook.com/heritageschools @heritagertc www.heritagertc.org