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Since the 1970s, Diakon Youth Services, formerly known as TresslerCare,
has been a leading provider of specialized services for children and
youths from across Pennsylvania. Primarily serving at-risk youths
referred by county juvenile probation departments or children and
youth services, Diakon Youth Services offers a unique and rich array
of services designed to help:
- Dependent youths attain permanency, safety, and well-being,
and
- Delinquent youths learn the need for accountability, community
protection, and the development of competencies for responsible,
successful living embodied in the principles of Balanced and Restorative
Justice.
Diakon Youth Services' goal is to build good citizens while strengthening
families.
Diakon Youth Services' tradition of service to children and youths
dates to the 1800s, when the Lutheran church established orphanages
to care for children, some left homeless by the Civil War. Today,
nearly a century and a half later, Diakon Youth Services directly
carries on the heritage of care begun by two of those children's homes-the
Tressler Orphans Home in Loysville, Pa., and The Lutheran Home at
Topton, Pa.
Part of Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries, Diakon Youth Services embodies
a mission to bring wholeness to children, families, and communities.
Its vision is to be an industry leader in providing compassionate,
quality care to children and families. Its culture embraces every
opportunity to grow through development of new services and enhancement
of existing programs.
In striving to be the provider of choice for youth services, Diakon
Youth Services frequently develops new programs in response to a community's
individual needs. The Diakon Youth Center, which helped to pioneer
outdoor and adventure-based programming, and Diakon Youth Services'
programs for children and youths with sexual behavior and offending
problems are just two examples of services created to meet unique
needs.
Diakon Youth Services stands at the forefront today because it understands
and responds to issues facing youths and their families. From the
least- to more-restrictive level of care within its array of programs,
Diakon Youth Services delivers effective therapeutic services and
interventions that work collaboratively to meet the individual needs
of children and adolescents, strengthen their families, and enhance
the quality of community life:
- A leader in this field since 1988, Diakon Youth Services provides
Specialized Outpatient Counseling to children
and youths with sexual behavior and offending problems, allowing
them to remain at home while they learn to accept responsibility
for sexual acting-out behaviors, identify risk factors, and develop
self-control.
- Family-Based Programs encompass intensive,
community-based services developed to prevent costly out-of-home
placements and to support youths transitioning home from placements.
In addition to Aftercare and Prevention programs, family-based
services include the Specialized Home-Based Treatment Program
for youths with sexual behavior and offending problems and the
Bridge Program, a corollary service to Diakon Youth Services’
Weekend Alternative Program.
- Adoption & Foster Care, with multiple offices
in both central and eastern Pennsylvania, emphasizes caring and
supportive foster families, highly trained, professional case
managers, and specialized treatment and interventions. Tiered
levels of care, based on frequency and intensity of services needed,
are available. Permanency planning for children is emphasized
through specialized Fost/Adopt, Kinship Care,
and Adoption services.
- Beginning in the early 1980s as a powerful, adventure-based
intervention for delinquent and dependent adolescents, the Diakon
Youth Center, formerly known as the TresslerCare
Wilderness Center, in Boiling Springs, Pa., offers a
series of similarly focused, short- and long-term programs. Whether
enrolled in the Weekend Alternative Program, Wilderness
Challenge Program, or multiple Residential Treatment
options, youths learn to overcome adversity in an unfamiliar-and
often unpredictable-environment by conquering demanding emotional
and physical challenges. Education and treatment services underscore
the lessons of these challenges, helping youths to discover the
strength and courage to become more than they thought possible.
With services extending to the four corners of Pennsylvania, Diakon
Youth Services proves it is possible to help at-risk youths overcome
the challenges they face and lead stable, healthy, and productive
lives . . . learning responsibility . . . accepting accountability
. . . creating community. |
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