Jack and Ruth Eckerd, searching for a different approach to help troubled kids turn their lives around, decided in 1968 to found the first Eckerd service to help troubled teens (now called Eckerd Academy) near Brooksville, Florida. Today, the organization has helped more than 100,000 children become productive and successful members of society.
The Eckerd Model for Residential Treatment helps students build self-confidence, accept responsibility for personal choices and redirect behavior. The results prove what the Eckerds believed all those years ago: Given the proper encouragement and a caring approach, people can and will change. From its humble beginning, the program is now at works through a full continuum of behavioral health and child welfare services nationwide.
The Eckerd Model is more than a treatment model and more than a business model. It’s the way to help youth be successful in life. There are three essential elements to the Eckerd Model for residential treatment. These three elements are dependent upon each other and are equally vital to the program’s success:
Guiding Philosophy: Is it good for kids? Everything we do, whether in a program or at the corporate office, has one purpose: to help children. Our staff is committed to the principles that guide how we work with youth:
- Youth come first. The first question is always, “Is it Good for Kids?”
- We treat youth with unconditional positive regard.
- We believe in and are committed to each youth’s ability to change.
- We believe in treating the whole youth: mind, body and spirit.
- We believe youth are partners in program and treatment.
- We believe in partnering with the youth’s family or guardians and the community to ensure the youth’s success.
- Our programs are non-punitive.
- Our staff members are genuine, straightforward and consistent.
Eight Essentials of the Therapeutic Program: Every experience, discussion, meal and routine helps youth develop personal responsibility and self-accountability, acquire new skills and experiences, and improve their emotional well-being. The eight essential elements are; safety, therapeutic environment, strength-based focus, therapeutic alliances, therapeutic group living, individual treatment, education & instructional approaches and family services.
Safety: The program offers a safe environment to address problems as opportunities for growth, not as weaknesses or personal faults.
Therapeutic Environment: Our therapeutic environment is based on a helping relationship between youth and staff. It is a stimulating, activity-rich environment, a strong positive group culture, a focus on the natural and logical consequences of behaviors, and an emphasis on youth taking responsibility for their own behavior. It is a solution-focused process without artificial interventions like point systems or artificial consequences for poor choices.
Strength-Based Focus: We empower troubled teens to focus on their strengths and their ability to overcome rather than on pathology or what is wrong. Emphasis is placed on youth uncovering past successes and building upon those successful strategies.
Therapeutic Alliances: Here, youth are treated with dignity, respect and fairness. This unconditional positive regard by appropriate adult role models improves self-worth, fosters personal growth and helps develop a therapeutic alliance between youth and adults.
Therapeutic Group Living: Our students live in small, family-like groups who eat, live, play, learn and solve problems together. They from fellow group members who may share similar challenges. As members of a team, they develop a sense of personal responsibility for their contribution to the success of the group. This experience extends to their family and community.
Individual Treatment: After assessing a youth’s needs and strengths, a plan is derived that guides the ongoing treatment process and focuses on attainable goals. It is reviewed and modified throughout treatment based on feedback by youth, family and Eckerd Academy staff.
Education & Instructional Approaches: Each Eckerd Academy residential, outdoor therapeutic program is an on-campus school, fully licensed and accredited by the appropriate state education authorities. Teachers are state certified and trained to meet the needs of youth with academic and behavioral challenges. Education programs focus on each child’s individual needs and incorporate the treatment process into the instructional process. Educational credits are transferable and individualized academic goals are intended to move youth toward successful transition to school, graduation, GED preparation, employability exploration, or career placement, as appropriate.
Family Services: Involving families in treatment helps improve the likelihood of long-term success. We invite each family member to partner in a student’s treatment and support him or her during residential stay. If needed, we provide access to effective parenting information and family-system interventions skills. When possible, home visits provide opportunities to practice transferring the skills learned in the program into the youth’s family and community situations.
Organizational Assets Integral to the Eckerd Model: Our success is due in part to the synergy of the organization’s people, its distinctive culture and in the belief that services for youth are best provided by competent, caring trained staff. Significant energy and resources are devoted to attracting, selecting, developing and retaining people who hold Eckerd Academy’s values, are committed to the mission, have genuine concern for the welfare of youth and are qualified for their work.
Everyone in the organization creates the culture of participatory leadership, where the responsibility to think and behave as a leader is not limited to people in leadership or supervisory positions.
Other key organizational assets include
- A staff dedicated to our mission
- A corporate-wide commitment to continuous improvement
- An infrastructure that sustains excellent programming and supports growth
- Relationships with individuals and organizations committed to improving the lives of America’s youth
The organization as a whole embraces a performance improvement approach that includes establishing plans, and measuring and evaluating performance against those plans. Measurement and evaluation supports decision-making, facilitates organizational improvement, and substantiates effectiveness and efficiency to stakeholders.
At the therapeutic level, specific outcomes of individual elements of the therapeutic program can be identified, observed, measured and evaluated. An agency, parent or guardian sending a youth to us can confidently expect to see personal growth and development, greater self worth, responsibility, better interpersonal relationships, educational achievement, life skills and productive, meaningful activity.
Jack and Ruth Eckerd, searching for a different approach to help troubled kids turn their lives around, decided in 1968 to found the first Eckerd service to help troubled teens (now called Eckerd Academy) near Brooksville, Florida. Today, the organization has helped more than 100,000 children become productive and successful members of society.
The Eckerd Model for Residential Treatment helps students build self-confidence, accept responsibility for personal choices and redirect behavior. The results prove what the Eckerds believed all those years ago: Given the proper encouragement and a caring approach, people can and will change. From its humble beginning, the program is now at works through a full continuum of behavioral health and child welfare services nationwide.
The Eckerd Model is more than a treatment model and more than a business model. It’s the way to help youth be successful in life. There are three essential elements to the Eckerd Model for residential treatment. These three elements are dependent upon each other and are equally vital to the program’s success:
1. GUIDING PHILOSOPHY: IS IT GOOD FOR KIDS?Everything we do, whether in a program or at the corporate office, has one purpose: to help children. Our staff is committed to the principles that guide how we work with youth:
·Youth come first. The first question is always, “Is it Good for Kids?”
·We treat youth with unconditional positive regard.
·We believe in and are committed to each youth’s ability to change.
·We believe in treating the whole youth: mind, body and spirit.
·We believe youth are partners in program and treatment.
·We believe in partnering with the youth’s family or guardians and the community to ensure the youth’s success.
·Our programs are non-punitive.
·Our staff members are genuine, straightforward and consistent.
2. EIGHT ESSENTIALS OF THE THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM: Every experience, discussion, meal and routine helps youth develop personal responsibility and self-accountability, acquire new skills and experiences, and improve their emotional well-being. The eight essential elements are, safety, therapeutic environment, strength-based focus, therapeutic alliances, therapeutic group living, individual treatment, education & instructional approaches and family services.
Safety: The program offers a safe environment to address problems as opportunities for growth, not as weaknesses or personal faults.
Therapeutic Environment: Our therapeutic environment is based on a helping relationship between youth and staff. It is a stimulating, activity-rich environment, a strong positive group culture, a focus on the natural and logical consequences of behaviors, and an emphasis on youth taking responsibility for their own behavior. It is a solution-focused process without artificial interventions like point systems or artificial consequences for poor choices.
Strength-Based Focus: We empower troubled teens to focus on their strengths and their ability to overcome rather than on pathology or what is wrong. Emphasis is placed on youth uncovering past successes and building upon those successful strategies.
Therapeutic Alliances: Here, youth are treated with dignity, respect and fairness. This unconditional positive regard by appropriate adult role models improves self-worth, fosters personal growth and helps develop a therapeutic alliance between youth and adults.
Therapeutic Group Living: Our students live in small, family-like groups who eat, live, play, learn and solve problems together. They from fellow group members who may share similar challenges. As members of a team, they develop a sense of personal responsibility for their contribution to the success of the group. This experience extends to their family and community.
Individual Treatment: After assessing a youth’s needs and strengths, a plan is derived that guides the ongoing treatment process and focuses on attainable goals. It is reviewed and modified throughout treatment based on feedback by youth, family and Eckerd Academy staff.
Education & Instructional Approaches: Each Eckerd Academy residential, outdoor therapeutic program is an on-campus school, fully licensed and accredited by the appropriate state education authorities. Teachers are state certified and trained to meet the needs of youth with academic and behavioral challenges. Education programs focus on each child’s individual needs and incorporate the treatment process into the instructional process. Educational credits are transferable and individualized academic goals are intended to move youth toward successful transition to school, graduation, GED preparation, employability exploration, or career placement, as appropriate.
Family Services: Involving families in treatment helps improve the likelihood of long-term success. We invite each family member to partner in a student’s treatment and support him or her during residential stay. If needed, we provide access to effective parenting information and family-system interventions skills. When possible, home visits provide opportunities to practice transferring the skills learned in the program into the youth’s family and community situations.
3. ORGANIZATIONAL ASSETS INTEGRAL TO THE ECKERD MODEL: Our success is due in part to the synergy of the organization’s people, its distinctive culture and in the belief that services for youth are best provided by competent, caring trained staff. Significant energy and resources are devoted to attracting, selecting, developing and retaining people who hold Eckerd Academy’s values, are committed to the mission, have genuine concern for the welfare of youth and are qualified for their work.
Everyone in the organization creates the culture of participatory leadership, where the responsibility to think and behave as a leader is not limited to people in leadership or supervisory positions.
Other key organizational assets include
·A staff dedicated to our mission
·A corporate-wide commitment to continuous improvement
·An infrastructure that sustains excellent programming and supports growth
·Relationships with individuals and organizations committed to improving the lives of America’s youth
The organization as a whole embraces a performance improvement approach that includes establishing plans, and measuring and evaluating performance against those plans. Measurement and evaluation supports decision-making, facilitates organizational improvement, and substantiates effectiveness and efficiency to stakeholders.
At the therapeutic level, specific outcomes of individual elements of the therapeutic program can be identified, observed, measured and evaluated. An agency, parent or guardian sending a youth to us can confidently expect to see personal growth and development, greater self worth, responsibility, better interpersonal relationships, educational achievement, life skills and productive, meaningful activity.
