Colorado Boys Ranch Foundation

Specialized Mentoring is a highly skilled, trauma-informed process for inspiring and helping youth to build resilience and positive character. Specialized Mentoring offers youth repetitive coaching and feedback; normalized socialization; purposeful community experiences; and opportunities to explore their interests, their talents, values and beliefs.

Specialized Mentoring was developed following a multi-year demonstration project of the STORY Program funded by the DANIELS FUND involving 250 risk-laden youth from alternative schools, day treatment centers, dysfunctional families, juvenile diversion and homelessness.

Specialized Mentoring helps youth…
· Learn and practice reciprocal relationships and regulation of emotional states
· Build essential adolescent life skills
· Develop a sense of accomplishment and mastery
· Gain new hope and positive energy for the future

Applying social-emotional learning principles, the “Specialized Mentor” offers a neutral and supportive role; takes the youth’s lead; helps the youth explore their personal interests and aspirations; models and shares insights; connects youth to community resources; and inspires hope.

Through conversations, purposeful community experiences and creative projects (including i-Pads with APPS and other technologies), youth are encouraged to creatively express their own personal STORY and think through the values and beliefs they want to live by. They are helped to discover their own power to live their best personal story and guide their own lives no matter their personal circumstances.

Supervised Visitation and Therapeutic Supervised Visitation services are designed to observe and monitor the interactions between a child and his/her non-residential parent(s) during that parent’s court-designated parenting time. Both services involve a trained CBR YouthConnect staff member who objectively observes parent-child interactions in a department approved controlled or community-based setting. The visitation supervisor ensures that the guidelines set by the Court or referral agency are followed, and submits progress reports and recommendations to the referral source as required

Supervised Visitation services involve little intervention by the visitation supervisor; during these visits the supervisor simply observes and documents the parent-child interactions, only intervening when safety concerns are present.

Therapeutic Supervised Visitations includes both the direct observation/documentation of visits as well as intervention with parents to improve parenting skills, eliminate safety concerns and reduce the time in out-of-home care. The staff member provides immediate support, feedback and interventions for parents when interacting with their children. The trained staff remains present and an active participant throughout the visit offering skills to build on the family’s strengths and correct observed weaknesses. A focus on Parenting Skills Development in which families receive individual instruction with an emphasis on attachment and bonding, alternatives to physical discipline, household management, consistent delivery of rules, effective communication skills, consequences and rewards, knowledge of developmental milestones and nutrition.

AAT is a strategic, skill-based therapy requiring professional knowledge and experience to successfully enhance individual, group and family therapies. The AAT therapist skillfully and thoughtfully involves the animal as a part of the relationship building process; as a source of information about individual and family dynamics; as a partner in providing feedback and insight to the client(s) relative to treatment goals; and as a motivator for change. Therapy goals are tailored to fit the assessed therapy needs of the youth and family. AAT professionals have a unique working relationship with their therapy animal(s), based on trust, respect and compassion. Modeling this interaction between therapist and therapy animal often prompts a client’s insight, motivation and subsequent engagement in therapy.

Outpatient Restoration Education services are designed to be provided to youth involved with the juvenile justice system and who are deemed by the court to be incompetent to initially proceed with typical court proceedings. Youth with an identified mental and or intellectual disability are appropriate with the average age ranging from 10-21 years old. Restoration Education services are provided in the least-restrictive settings given the individual youth’s presenting concerns in accordance with best-practice standards utilizing a standardized curriculum provided by OBH. Education takes place through multiple learning formats given the individual youth’s learning style and determined need for reiteration.