Laurel House

Long-term Preventative Care for At-Risk Teens

Hope Harbor is the only long-term, privately funded preventative youth shelter in all of California. Teens who enter our program come from a low-to-moderate income households with family members who struggle with addition, abuse, poverty, incarceration, food insecurity, mental health issues, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and low education levels. They have grown up with the examples of their family’s damaging behaviors and do not know another way of living. These teens, ages 12-17, have responded to the role models, challenges, and uncertainty of their childhoods by engaging in the same negative cycles they have witnessed and are beginning to dabble in drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, school truancy, and running away. They are on the precipice of devolving into a life of homelessness, human trafficking, criminalization, addiction, and gang violence, from which it is very hard to escape and overcome. Hope Harbor meets these at-risk teens and their families at this crossroads in their lives where they can choose to continue on a path of destruction or forge a new way that will lead to a brighter future. Hope Harbor intervenes at this critical juncture to restore what is broken and equip teens with new skills and coping mechanisms to build a life of opportunities for themselves. The Hope Harbor investment includes: • Mental Health Evaluation and Treatment: Every teen who comes to Hope Harbor receives a comprehensive Heads-Up Checkup evaluation and psychological testing to diagnose any mental health or behavioral health issues. Teens receive 1:1 case management, medication management if needed, and weekly individual, family, and crisis counseling from a licensed clinical therapist to address these diagnoses, determine the root causes of their trauma, and teach positive coping strategies. • Individual Academic Planning: Each teen’s academic performance is evaluated and used as a baseline to create an individualized academic plan that can include credit recovery, tutoring, school attendance, and college planning. All teens attend Ednovate’s Legacy College Prep High School in Santa Ana that specializes in working with at-risk teens to achieve high academic achievement, graduate from high school, and gain acceptance into college. • Substance Use Recovery and Education: Teens are tested for substance use throughout their time at Hope Harbor. They receive substance use counseling as necessary and participate in the Juvenile Alcohol and Drug Education (JADE) intervention and DECISIONS through California Youth Services, AA meetings, and Celebrate Recovery meetings. • Healthy Living: Teens learn how to engage in healthy living and experience the positive role modeling of the Hope Harbor House Parents. In addition, teens gain valuable life skills, including cooking, establishing a routine, financial literacy, and self-esteem building. • Comprehensive Care: All teens are provided with safe shelter and 3 nutritious meals plus snacks every day in a nurturing family environment. They receive physical health, chronic health, dental, orthodontic, and vision care. In addition, they are engaged in physical fitness, nutrition education, and music and art therapy. • Family Intervention and Therapy: Hope Harbor provides weekly therapy to family members in the hopes that the teen can move back home and the family can be reunited. • Spiritual Introduction and Growth: Hope Harbor teens’ spiritual growth is fostered by attending youth group and church services weekly, completing six phases of the “Design for Discipleship” Bible study series, and participating in nightly devotions and prayers.