Care Givers

The children's daily living environment, or milieu, is structured to facilitate close and meaningful relationship building. Our child care staff are trained extensively in the Attachment Model.

In order to promote continuity in the children's daily living, the staff schedules are divided into two three day shifts. Each side of the week is staffed with child care workers both male and female. Our student to adult ratio remains at about 1 to 3. Simultaneously, the milieu director is in the milieu throughout the whole week. At night, there is always a child care worker who sleeps at the house. He or she is accompanied by an awake staff member who is there to alert the Child Care Worker if a child is having difficulty and needs a trusted adult to be close to.

This staffing pattern has many benefits. For example, the person who puts the child to bed is also there to wake him up to provide support at a time when most children feel quite vulnerable. When challenging behaviors and emotions arise, the child can trust that the caregiver is not going to leave in a few minutes because her shift is over. Relationships are built on sharing the difficult as well as the fun times which rarely fit into an hourly schedule.

Rhythm

Our daily schedule is designed to allow the children in our care a predictable flow of activities as well as flexibility so that the staff can arrange or rearrange the schedule based on individual needs.

Transition Groups - All of the children and house staff meet everyday for planned Morning and Evening Transition Groups. During groups, the staff set expectations and refocus the children's attention before moving on to a new activity. The transition group is a key element in everyday life in the milieu as it helps the children stay focused on his or her own needs as they move through their day. It is also an opportunity for the staff to control and assess the rhythm of the group so that it can be assured that each child's emotional and physical needs are being met. Groups are also held throughout the day according to the needs of the children and the rhythm of the group.

The children's daily schedule includes three meals with snacks in between, school, study time, recreation time, nap time, clean up, time for reading with staff or writing a letter. Since each child's needs differ, it is quite possible that every child will have a different schedule in the same day.

Each child is scheduled for formal therapy at least once a week and more often is necessary. Usually a child does not immediately enter individual therapy, but is given time to develop trust that he is safe and will be cared for. Until that trust develops, the child is less likely to take risks in looking at himself, his behaviors and less likely to risk new choices.

The intensive and ongoing treatment planning process begins upon admission and is guided by the child's readiness for therapy and the therapeutic goals. A master treatment plan is developed within the first thirty days and reviewed by the multidisciplinary team a minimum of every Three months. Staffings and discussions regarding all of the children occur weekly.

Academics - The Nurturing Classroom

Because we recognize the diverse educational needs of our students, our school is divided multiple learning centers. The classrooms further the Villa's mission to create a living and learning environment in which children are safe to trust that adults will take care of them thus encouraging them to try new behaviors that will allow them to succeed in their relationships and in school.

So, what does "The Nurturing Classroom" look like? At the Villa, the classroom is yet another environment in which the process of attachment is the focus. The child is included in the process of entering the classroom from the beginning of treatment so that he or she understands how the "trust of care" is transferred from the child care staff to the teacher. As the student teacher relationship is established, the child has permission to ask the teacher for everything he needs or wants and express feelings which the teacher channels into positive creative, expression. The teacher becomes a role model to the students by expressing her emotions honestly and directing genuine interactions among the students and herself. Ultimately, she empowers each student by allowing him or her to make positive choices in accordance with the specific learning needs of each child.

Gratification of Life

Playing is the most important part of being a child. In order to balance the difficult emotional work that the children experience, both planned and spontaneous fun is a part of daily life.

We like to take advantage of the opportunities available to us in New Mexico for fun and recreation. Planned activities may include sledding on Sandia Peak, a three day field trip to Carlsbad Caverns, mountain biking, a few days at Elephant Butte Park for swimming and jet skiing. Cookouts and camping, either on campus or at any of the nearby areas, are popular summer events.

Learning how to feel good can be challenging for children in our care and spontaneous fun helps to facilitate attachment. Water fights in the heat of summer, building snowmen in the field or going out for ice cream and a movie are wonderful activities to share with children. Most importantly children here do not have to earn fun experiences. It is understood that everyone gets what they need!