40+ Year Track Record of Helping Troubled Teens Make Life-long Changes
In 1968, when Jack and Ruth Eckerd founded Eckerd Academy, their first residential school for troubled teenagers, the only other alternative for these children was hospitalization. While their nurturing, outdoor therapeutic program was viewed as hopelessly naïve by some, they soon proved that making an investment in troubled teenagers through individualized emotional, academic and social support was the key to a positive transformation. Today, Eckerd Academy is considered to be among the nation’s leading residential treatment centers for troubled youth, where boys learn to re-direct their behavior, take responsibility for their actions and return home as a better son.
Eckerd Academy is one of the nation’s
leading residential treatment center for troubled youth.
A primary difference between Eckerd Academy and programs like boot camps, traditional boarding schools and military academies is our individualized positive, non-punitive and strengths-based internal approach to behavior management. We do not use points, demerits or other externally based systems to promote behavior change. We believe that such reward/punishment systems do little to promote long-lasting changes in troubled youth because life does not always provide such guidelines for good decisions. Instead, we teach boys to actually think differently, to problem solve by themselves and with groups, and internalize good decision-making to guide them for the rest of their lives.
Just as importantly, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that many therapeutic schools and programs take, our students’ academic skills, learning styles, social skills and mental health are formally evaluated upon admission and an individualized academic and therapeutic program is developed to address their unique and specific needs. Our individualized approach is key to helping our students make long-lasting changes in attitudes and behaviors.
