Michelle Corelli-Artino
Dominique Smith
Agency
The agency that we chose to research is Maryville Academy, which is located in Des Plaines, IL. Maryville Academy is a childcare agency which provides an array of services for children and families. Agency’s Mission
“Maryville Academy’s mission is to help children and families to reach their fullest potential by empowering intellectual, spiritual, moral, and emotional growth” (Maryville Academy, 2010) Types of Services Provided Maryville offers a number of services to benefit the community and its residents. Services which are offered by Maryville include: family support services, residential programs, educational programs, behavioral and mental health services, and community development programs.
The family support services offered emphasizes the importance of family, and attempts to keep families together. The services focus on safety and well being. “We engage, empower and partner with families throughout decision and goal-making processes and we provide individualized services for each family linking them to community-based networks of supports and services” (Maryville Academy, 2010)
The residential programs provide children with a place to live when they are unable to live at home. The goal is to work with families so that the children may return home. However, if this is not possible, long term residential homes, transitional living, foster care, or independent living services are also provided.
Maryville Academy recognizes the importance of learning, and provides children living at Maryville, as well as others in the community with educational and vocational services. Maryville also offers specialized services for those who need it. The Jen School is specifically for adolescent males who are currently in grades 7 to 12, or ages 12 to 22. The school combines both educational and therapeutic services. “The school serves children in Maryville’s residential programs and students from the community with complex emotional, behavioral and learning disabilities. The Maryville Jen School staff uses hands-on, alternative and experiential teaching methods in conjunction with traditional instruction methods to maximize the student's potential for success” (Maryville Academy, 2010).
Maryville uses a strength based approach for behavioral and mental health services. Psychiatric hospital and outpatient services are provided to children, young adults, and families who have mental health concerns. The Maryville Scott Noland Hospital serves children (ages 3-21) who are at risk of harming themselves or others with inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. “Maryville Academy strives to educate and empower young people with the knowledge and skills needed to make a lasting contribution to the community. Maryville's outreach and athletic programs contribute to the development of the whole person, providing life experiences designed to prepare them for the future” (Maryville Academy, 2010). Residential Services Maryville’s MISA Program is a residential program for adolescent boys, ages 12-21. The program offers specialized treatment for youth with mental illness and substance abuse problems. MISA’s focus is to treat both mental illness and substance abuse simultaneously so that both areas of concern are improved.
Maryville Saint George Program provides residential treatment for males, ages 13-20, who have both mental illness and intellectual disabilities. “The youth attend the Maryville Jen School, participate in recreational and vocational activities, and are encouraged to actively be involved in their treatment in order to facilitate emotional stability and develop independent life-skills” (Maryville Academy, 2010). “The Maryville Scott Nolan Residential Treatment Center serves children and adolescents with severe mental health disorders who have not been successful in foster or group home placements. The program prepares youth for the transition from a structured residential setting to a less restrictive setting” (Maryville Academy, 2010) Internship Experience While Maryville offers a variety of programs, one of our group members had the opportunity of interning at the Maryville “Jen” School, which is an alternative therapeutic day school. Maryville, “Jen” School provides adolescent males, ages 12-22 (grades 7-12), with therapeutic and educational services. “The school serves children in Maryville’s residential programs and students from the community with complex emotional, behavioral, and learning disabilities. Maryville “Jen” School staff uses hands-on, alternative and experiential teaching methods in conjunction with traditional instruction methods to maximize the student's potential for success” (Maryville Academy, 2010). The “Jen” School recognizes that each student has their own way of learning, and has their own pace at which they learn. The teaching methods at “Jen” School do not provide a traditional way of learning that one would get in a mainstream school district; which is why “Jen” School is so effective for students who do not learn at a traditional rate.
The mission statement of “Jen” School at Maryville is to “provide authentic and experiential learning opportunities within a structured caring, and humanistic educational environment characterized by student-teacher relationships grounded in respectful reciprocity” (Maryville, handbook, 2010). The mission statement is carried out by using a “Relational Teaching Model” along with cooperative teaching methods (Maryville, handbook, 2010). The Relational Teaching Model demonstrates mutual respect between the teacher and student. Emphasis is put on student strengths in order to encourage a desire to learn, as well as give them a sense of accomplishment. Cooperative teaching methods allows each student to be a part of the classroom experience, and to work with others in and out of class.
The Jen School is a combination of four distinct educational programs “which are broken down into Units: Unit A, Unit B, Unit C, and the INVEST Program. Unit A is designed to collaborate with the MISA program. As previously mentioned, the MISA program provides services to adolescent boys who have a dual diagnosis of both mental illness and substance abuse disorder. The youth are placed in this residential program primarily through the juvenile court system, and at times by their parents. The MISA program has 22 residential beds, serves students ages 12-21 and has a 3:5:1 (3 teachers, 5 Instructional Assistants and 1 therapist) ratio of staff to students (Maryville, handbook, 2010). Unit B serves DCFS wards (ages 12-21) that have been placed residentially by school districts #25 and #214. These districts determine that these students are in need of therapeutic day school. Unit C serves students ages 14-21 with disabilities identified through the IEP process by Illinois School Districts. The youth have been identified as students with disabilities such as Emotionally Disordered, Learning Disabled, Cognitively Impaired, Autistic, Other Health Impaired, and or/Traumatic Brian Injured. The INVEST Program provides structured and supported employment opportunities through an experiential learning process emphasizing the inherent reciprocity within the academic study and job skills training. Paid work experience is provided in various employment areas and career centered instruction is delivered within a classroom setting (Maryville, handbook,2010). The Way Services are Evaluated One of the ways Maryville evaluates their services is by asking the clients and their families about their overall satisfaction. “In order to measure client’s satisfaction, we survey children and families that we have served to find out how satisfied they are with their Maryville experience” (Maryville Academy, 2010).
Client progress is also used as a method to evaluate the agency’s performance. The client’s admission assessment is used as a tool to determine that the individual has indeed improved prior to discharge.
Client feedback is also another way that Maryville evaluates their effectiveness. The agency receives countless letter and thank you cards from children and their families who admit that the agency has helped them to get better.
Research that is Carried out about Services
References
Maryville Academy (2010). Maryville Academy. Retrieved from http://www.maryville academy.org/
“Mission Statement”. Maryville Academy “Jen” School, Des Plaines, IL. July 2009.
“Policies and Programs”. Maryville Academy Jen” School, Des Plaines, IL. July 2009.
