Renovated state school provides help for youth
Tarrant County is home to an important initiative to improve Texas' system of foster care called Foster Care Redesign. Ryan Osborne’s article published Saturday (“Fort Worth area foster kids housed at former state school”) highlights one way this new approach works.
As mentioned in the article, the children served in this facility have significant behavioral and emotional needs. These needs are currently so severe that these youth cannot be served safely and therapeutically in a family setting.
These children require a high level of supervision and structure and a program designed for quick response to their needs. The goal of Serenity Place’s program is to help youth improve and heal and then move to a more family-like setting.
Having thoroughly vetted Serenity Place’s program in Crockett, Texas, we at ACH Child and Family Services believe this program offers an important service to meet the complex and challenging needs of some children in the foster care system.
It provides a safe and stable placement for our local children. No similar program exists in North Texas.
Negative terms used by an elected official in the article are a gross mischaracterization of what occurs on a daily basis in this facility.
The campus offers open greenspace, recreational facilities, a gym and frequent opportunities for youth to be outside. The living quarters are newly renovated and provide a nice environment for the residents.
The program employs a number of professionally trained clinical staff, and we have confidence in their leadership and the staff’s ability to care for the children and youth living at Serenity Place.
Our staff visit the campus on a regular basis and have been impressed with the dedication of Serenity Place’s leadership to create personalized care plans for the youth.
Based on our observations and experience, we will continue to work with this facility because they are helping our children receive individualized treatment and healing.
We are also working to develop a similar program in North Texas so, in the future, these youth can stay closer to home and the community they know.
Foster Care Redesign allows us to build capacity for children in a way never before done in Texas.
This story is one example of how developing a specialized approach to serve children with challenging needs prevents them from sleeping in Child Protective Services offices, provides safety and treatment for children with unique needs, and creates a partnership focused on helping children succeed.
Wayne Carson is CEO of ACH Child and Family Services in Fort Worth.
This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Renovated state school provides help for youth."