Structure for Success
Our Residential Treatment Center, located on a serene 33-acre campus along the Hudson River in Yonkers, provides 24-hour residential care to youth who require intensive therapeutic and educational support. We help youth cope with mental-health challenges, emotional difficulties, developmental disabilities, and challenging behaviors and/or the trauma caused by abuse and neglect. In a therapeutic setting, residents learn effective problem solving, healthy coping skills, and adaptive behaviors. Self-esteem is enhanced as is their ability to trust others and relate positively to the world.
Our program provides structure and support to youth who have long histories of placements in psychiatric hospitals and other mental-health facilities but have not yet accomplished all the progress they wish to make. Attendance at the Biondi Middle & High School is coupled with recreational and therapeutic activities and clinical services to help each youth strengthen his or her ability to participate in the community and to return to a less restrictive environment as quickly as possible.
A Home Away from Home
We create an environment that is welcoming and homelike. Youth live in cottages that provide a warm, supportive home in which to move their lives forward. Here, each youth has the ability to decorate his or her own room, participates in meal planning and has a say in the activities that residents participate in. We take the time to learn each youth’s likes, dislikes, dreams and personal goals, and we respect them.
Personalized Support and Interventions
Our approach isn’t one-size-fits-all. We develop an individual treatment plan for each youth that includes specialized therapeutic supports tailored to specific challenges and a choice of personalized activities, and after-school and weekend recreation. Each youth participates in therapy — individual and group — as well as in a behavior modification program to help them develop the tools they need to succeed.
Going Beyond the Basics
Treatment is not our only goal. We also want graduates to be good neighbors and good citizens, so we provide community service opportunities through partnerships with the Yonkers Police Department, the Food Bank for Westchester, and other community partners. To ensure academic success, we have an After-School Learning Center that focuses on preparation for the Regents exam, credit recovery and academic enrichment.
Achieving Success Beyond Our Doors
As a result of the supportive, individualized treatment they receive, many of our residents are successfully able to the return to their homes in the community, graduate from high school, and go on to job skills training and employment. Youth with mental health challenges and disabilities gain the skills needed to live as independently as possible and thrive.