Norris’ Group Care Programs provide treatment, educational, and therapeutic recreational services to youth ages 8 through 18 and their families. Youth receive services related to mental health, emotional behavioral disorders, problematic sexualized behaviors, AODA, and trauma, including physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect. The goal of our programs is to provide a safe, structured and intensive treatment environment where youth and families can focus on building the skills and resilience to assist the youth to transition back into the community. Building relationships with each child and family is key to developing their support system. Programming promotes healing and stability through trauma-informed interventions that are strength based, solution focused, family friendly and culturally sensitive while supporting both community and family reintegration.
To promote healing and wellness for youth and families, the River’s Edge Campus has developed its policies and practices based on the following standards and philosophies:
- The Norris Mission, which is “strengthening youth and their families by providing a ‘circle of care’, a continuum of education, support and treatment”.
- The requirements set forth by Wisconsin DCF Administrative Code 52, which ensures residential treatment centers protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of youth in care while ensuring that continuous treatment and permanency planning occurs to allow each youth to return to the community as quickly as possible.
- The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities’, or CARF’s, comprehensive set of standards related to the quality of business and service delivery practices and ongoing commitment to continuous quality improvement.
- The Risking Connection® model guides daily practice around trauma-informed care at River’s Edge Campus by offering context for understanding the effects of trauma on healthy brain development and how to assist youth in achieving personal growth, healing and development during their time in care.
- CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute) provides a Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® program that focuses on safe and least restrictive techniques, including verbal de-escalation, physical disengagement and engagement interventions*.
Recreation has been shown to play an integral role in maintaining physical and mental health and improving one’s quality of life. Physical and wellness activities are incorporated throughout daily programming at both River’s Edge Campus and River Bend Place to allow youth to remain active while improving skills related to teamwork, communication and self-efficacy. Providing an opportunity to explore new interests and activities, youth are encouraged to participate in the planning of daily activities.
The Beyond Fostering Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC) program provides clinical interventions within the context of a licensed treatment foster family provided to children with significant behavioral, emotional and/or medical challenges. Children referred to the TFC program generally have complex trauma histories including abuse and neglect. Children served are between the ages of 0-21. Foster homes are licensed in the State of Wisconsin at a 3 or 4 certification level for treatment foster care to accept foster care placement or respite.
