PROGRAM
The Hope Harbor program is a voluntary placement option where teens age 12-17 and their families have the opportunity to heal from past hurts and destructive choices.
We offer a small, structured program that incorporates the entire family with a focus on Jesus Christ in all things in a ministry setting.
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Hope Harbor offers loving, family-style care. Like at home, residents prepare meals and eat together, share bedrooms, do their laundry, relax in the living room, and use the yard for games. Biblical counseling and private schools are provided on-site. Our teens learn healthier habits as they build skills to serve them for years.
Hope Harbor has provided loving, family-style care to teens in our locations since 2005. We are committed to a safe, comfortable home environment where teens learn responsibility, understand their own values, and receive the tools they need to pursue excellence in all they do. Our program is structured so residents prepare meals and eat together family-style, share bedrooms with one roommate, do their own laundry, relax in the living room, and use the yard for games, just like at home.
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Hope Harbor is equipped to provide all our services in-house. Each site employs a Biblical Counselor who meets with teens and parents weekly for individual sessions and group skills classes. Each site is home to its own private school with educators providing quality status education for all ages year-round. Each site includes extensive programming activities, spiritual growth initiatives, and recreation that allow our teens to learn healthier habits that build skills to serve them for years to come. Hope Harbor exists to provide a safe, voluntary long-term program where teens can discover who they are in Christ, to promote lasting healing.
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Our staff comes from all walks of life and has two central commonalities: a love for Christ, and a call to this work. Our staff has training and experience in working with youth on issues relating to boundaries, trust-based care, de-escalation, trauma-informed programming, adoption, attachment, abuse and exploitation, and much more. Our staff-to-resident ratio is 1:6, and our volunteer and internship positions are highly sought after, resulting in our residents at Hope Harbor receiving the individualized care and attention any parent would want for their child. We are staffed with awake staff working rotating shift work, with someone on-site 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
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Hope Harbor is serious about safety and care. Choosing placement for your teen is a decision that is not to be taken lightly. We know from our years of experience that every child is different, and there is no one program that is the end-all answer for each situation. It is essential for the well-being of your child, our other residents, and our staff that we carefully assess every placement contact we receive and that we do our due diligence to ensure our program is the right fit for your family. Not every call to Hope Harbor results in placement. We know the limitations and do not place teens that would be better served in another program. We are a completely hands-off program that does not use any restraint, takedown, or lockdown techniques. We are not punitive, kid jail, being ‘sent away,’ emergency placement, wilderness or labor program, respite or foster care, or a quick fix. If that is the level of care a child needs, we will make referrals to a more appropriate setting.
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Hope Harbor builds strong families. We believe that for the entire family to heal, the entire family needs to heal. All Hope Harbor locations require that the parents of the teens in our program travel to our site weekly for parenting classes, biblical counseling, and family visits for the duration of the program. Those sessions are held on Fridays, on-site, in person, starting week one. This is an enormous commitment for parents – work schedules must be altered, travel time and expense incurred, and childcare arranged for siblings. But we promise you, it is worth it. The time and energy families put into those Fridays are an investment in your entire family.
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We recommend families reside within reasonable driving distance of the location where they are placing their teen. We have worked with families as far as 6-7 hours’ drive one way, provided the family is committed to the weekly travel. There are simply not many programs that do what we do, and how we do it. We do not offer our services through telecommunication and require parents to be on-site weekly. It is important for parents to be on-site to be with their children, to grow and practice what they are learning together, and to ensure their children are safe and well cared for.
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Hope Harbor is a privately funded nonprofit organization offering family-style services to teens in a home setting. We do not bill insurance for our services and are not a government-funded organization. We are a private pay program. We know that no one plans to need our services, and for many families, program costs are the key reason they are unable to seek help for their families. We would love to talk with you about our tuition rates, our tuition assistance options, and how we can partner together to ensure your family gets the help they need. We do not turn any family away for inability to meet full program fees; if finances are the one piece preventing you from reaching out, don’t let that stop you. Contact us today.
Program Components
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A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. - Proverbs 1:5
Education is one of the four core components of our program. Residents attend Hope Harbor’s on-site non-accredited private school. We work extensively with the school district each student originates from to ensure students are on track and credits are transferrable upon program completion. Your teen’s coursework will become accredited through Lighthouse Christian Academy at program end if requested by your teen’s school district. A $300 accreditation fee would be charged for this service.
School is in session from 8 am-3 pm Monday-Friday year-round. The school day may include special classes, counseling, spiritual growth sessions, group projects, field trips, and tutors. Our Teachers are on-site and in-person, and all schoolwork is done with pencil and paper. We do not use distance learning or electronic education for our schoolwork.
Our Teachers manage each resident’s school plan with a curriculum for varying grades, skill levels, and courses. Residents catch up, stay on track, and even move ahead academically, reaching their potential and realizing their ability where they haven’t before. Residents can even graduate high school at Hope Harbor.
Our curriculum for all locations is in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. A.C.E. is biblically based and individualized with studies in Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and Literature. Initial assessments and school transcripts provide structure to develop each teen’s individual school plan. Students complete 12 packets with 80% accuracy to earn one credit and also earn a PE and FACS credit through daily recreation and activities. Our Teachers will ensure a smooth transition for your teen into our school and back home again when the time comes.
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Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. -Proverbs 20:5
Biblical counseling is one of the four core components of our program. Our on-site Biblical Counselors work individually with our teens and families in person to meet their healing goals. Residents participate in weekly individual biblical counseling and group teaching, with family biblical counseling introduced later in their program. Parents participate in bi-weekly biblical counseling and weekly Parenting Classes.
Hope Harbor employs biblical counselors who are members of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC ) and/or Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) and receive additional training in techniques including Parenting with Love and Logic and TBRI in addition to their educational backgrounds. All sessions are biblical, Christ-centered, and Holy Spirit-led, allowing for healing through the one true Healer. Hope Harbor is not a mental health provider or treatment and will coordinate referral and care with outside providers for any mental health needs or medication management needs.
As a voluntary program, residents are given tools to participate in their healing when they are ready. Our Biblical Counselors have helped hundreds of teens and parents grow and understand their identity in Christ, their value as a child of God, and their need for boundaries, forgiveness, and healthy coping skills. Many of the families we serve have past experience with counseling in some form. Biblical Counseling at Hope Harbor is a unique alternative option to the traditional counseling approach many of our families have experienced before.
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Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. - 1 Timothy 4:12
Life Skills or (independent living skills) is one of the four core components of our program. Our teens will “work it out” with their Biblical Counselor and they will “walk it out” with our Direct Care Staff through their life skills building. Residents at Hope Harbor learn responsibility and ownership in household situations while living in a “family style” environment with their peers.
Independent living skills are the framework for all teens to learn responsibility and ownership in daily life. Respect, positive behavior choices, social skills, home care, personal care, coping skills, time management, conflict resolution, and boundaries are a backdrop for this growth. Teens at Hope Harbor learn through chores, physical fitness and recreation programs, personal hygiene, manners, nutrition, meal prep, self-control, integrity and leadership, hobby development, respect, motivation, service projects, and more.
Teens and parents in our program have weekly visits at the program starting with progress to weekly home passes. We believe it is essential for families to be together during this entire journey to heal together. Phone calls and mail are also part of that process of relationship building. While in our program, teens will not have their cell phones, computers, or other devices. Use of these electronics and social media may be introduced toward the program's end, through a comprehensive Social Media and Online Safety program offered to families, taught by Hope Harbor.
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Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. - Colossians 2:8
Spiritual Growth is one of the four core components of our program. Hope Harbor is an interdenominational Christian program, Christ-centered and Biblically based. We believe in salvation through Jesus Christ and refer to the Bible for direction and clarity in all matters, as outlined in our Statement of Faith.
We desire to help those we serve to walk out of a relationship that they choose with the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of our staff has made a personal choice of commitment to Christ and walks out our faith as an example to our teens and parents. This allows for an environment where the Holy Spirit is welcomed and present, drawing others to Him for real heart change.
The freedom to choose a personal relationship with Christ is an essential part of the Christian faith. No one can force or fake a walk with the Lord. Healing through Christ is encouraged in this Christian program. As our residents see the freedom offered through the Father, they are given the opportunity to choose their walk for themselves. For those who do not make this choice for themselves, we know God’s Word does not return void, and we trust that the seeds planted during the time they spend at Hope Harbor will be watered and harvested in the days to come.
Spiritual growth initiatives offered to our residents include Christian fellowship and discipleship, daily devotions, service projects, worship services, weekly Bible study, weekly chapel on-site, scripture memorization, frequent time for prayer, Christian leadership opportunities, Plan of Salvation study lessons, weekly church in the community and other opportunities to grow and learn in faith as they arise.
Contact us today to find the hope and healing you have been looking for.
ARE YOU READY TO FIND HOPE?
We can help your family.