Thresholds Outreach

I give this review one star because the algorithm won t allow me to type without any star and because there are not any minus stars!This review is regarding the YAYA young adults and youth advocacy program and the transition to independent living programs; which for the most part overlap.Please do not let your child be involved with this pretend not for profit organization. Case workers , family, fictive kin, GALs, please, please-Please do not allow any youth with whom you are involved or for whom you make choices. be forced to live with these people, be part of their programs- please Nothing!! They only care about the bottom line. All the positive staff, programs, benefits, Services they talk about, it s all a lie or at best greatly exaggerated. Name one service, I ll tell you the truth about it-school- they sit the kid in front of a computer. Their attitude is- well, go ahead, have at it- while the educator sits barely within ear shot doing paperwork. Last year, school started in Sept, 2022 ; in Oct.2022, the teacher, who is supposedly special ed qualified, who is the only teacher, with an assistant - as of October last year, she had not yet even read the IEP for a Special Education child who was also new to this agency and school. This is shocking! Inexcusable! This Youth actually received zero services directed to HIS individual special needs. The goal was help him graduate high school according to the parameters of his IEP. They didn t even try, they only accommodate their own agendas.Therapy? Sometimes. When the therapist got to you. Should it be a set time and day- an experience none of these kids have likely experienced? Predictable and consistent?No, because nothing thresholds was doing was predictable, no one could be counted on. No consistency- exactly how the kids lives have always been. So much for establishing a trusting relationship to model. As far as I saw, there was a therapist responsible for 20-25 kids. The most common scenario is this; the people providing trauma informed therapy for very traumatized youth, have finished their course work and must complete 4000 working hours, two years, towards the required hours to take the exam required to be a licensed clinical social worker-LCSW.But, the point is, while working at thresholds, they are in fact !!practicing!!The people they (all the theys refer to thresholds) claim to be masters prepared are managers. They do not interact with the youth. They work with numbers to show a profitable bottom line.The people who actually interact with the kids ( and I say kids because 18 years old, 20, 22 - they are still kids). Our brains keep growing, learning, processing, adapting, continues until at least age 25.For the kids in these facilities, many with horrific histories, pretty much all with PTSD, ADHD, TRAUMA, that common course of brain development has been delayed and squashed by their traumatic histories, organic disablement and life in group homes.Their 18, -19 year old brains can not be compared to a kid not raised in the system . It takes more time and more positive, consistent interactions with caring adults- one of the basics every child requires.As per the jobs posted on the web site, the employees who interact with these youth on a daily basis, are required to have some combination of an AA degree in anything related to social work; two to five years experience in the same or similar field; a BA In social work or some related field. The job requirements and the job description are like reading two different books on two unrelated topics. In fact, many of the employees, particularly those who most interact with the kids are ignorant, minimally educated, and have no real understanding or investment in their jobs or the youth.There are three or four, maybe five of these three story buildings the kids live in. They are all within one to two miles of each other. The demographics of the youth population is predominantly those with antisocial behavior tendencies. It s like prison; some have been falsely convicted; (continues)

Great people who want to help!