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About Our Services
Other Programs
In providing basic forms of care and services we have grown in our understanding of what else might be needed to support the success of our children over the long term. This has led to growth of our in-home therapy and increased activities that support each child’s development and to us providing other services:
Missoula Learning Lab – was established in 1993 to serve as an alternative educational setting for youngsters arriving at the Youth Homes who had already been withdrawn from school due to attendance or other issues. The 8-10 student center supports intellectual growth through individualized instruction by a certified teacher. Today the school has full computing capabilities and is located within the Public School District Alternative High School . Students can receive credit when doing work assigned from their home district during short-term stays in shelter in Missoula or study toward and receive their GED. We are still working on getting full credit for work done with our local district.
Therapeutic Wilderness Program – InnerRoads Wilderness Program uses Wilderness as a structure within which to teach youngsters to deal with emotions, resolve issues, make life decisions and increase they’re feeling of self-worth. The program offers four weeks of wilderness travel and skills, two weeks of camping near the community with service learning. Staff therapists and counselors provide individual, group and family therapy preceding, during and following the time away from home and family reintegration, followed by supportive mentoring for the balance of the school year (about 9 months). Groups of 5-6 young adolescents, ages 13-17, are served by a staff of 3 instructors, a program director and program or contracted therapists. To learn more click here on InnerRoads to visit a full website, with pictures. IRWP was started in 2001 and was assumed by Youth Homes in February of 2005. This year it will serve 10 families. We hope to build its capacity so that it can be serving up to 30-40 families each year with these intensive services and other children can reached through shorter-term but related wilderness or adventure-based services.
Street Outreach – through our association with the Federal Runaway Youth Act (passed by Congress and renewed every year since 1974) and our efforts in the Missoula collaboration of agencies concerned with youth in transition from the foster care system into adulthood, we have set a priority for reaching out to older adolescents who are on the streets. The Counselor in our Shirley Miller Attention Home (Missoula) spend some of his week working with youngsters in shelter and the balance is spent reaching out to youngsters on the streets and unconnected to families or helping agencies. Our goals are to let them know someone cares, connect them to services when possible and appropriate, and reunite them with families or find them placements when necessary.
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