Wow, how an organization entrusted with the care of at risk youth be so careless. Seems they are very good at back pedaling when staff make mistakes, not so good at placing the child’s mental health in front of their own corporate agendas. If organizations providing care for at risk youth do not step out of the box when it comes to providing solution…… we will continue with the same alarming statistics of 54% of children removed from their homes do not graduate from high school and 80% end up in prison at some point in their lives.
Beacon Center newly appointed Executive Director has not clue number one what goes on in the house which became boldly clear in a meeting with him today.
Zuma’s offered five wonderful young women the opportunity at no cost to take part in our $460.00 per person sensational experiential learning program. While the young women were benefiting greatly from the experience, a fact agreed upon by all involved, sadly the powers that be at the Beacon Center pulled the girls from the program mid-stream with 1.5 hours notice.
This road was rocky from day one, the program coördinator from the Beacon Center did not read or fill out the necessary paper work prior to the first day of the program. Zuma’s staff asked repeatedly to have the paper work completed prior to the programs start day, obviously this fell on deaf ears. So here we are week 5 of a six-week program…… and five of our eight program participants pulled with no justification. Vague statements of clinical boundaries, licensing regulations and the sort were stated. Though the fact that we are not a therapy center nor are we bound by therapy red tape were ignored…. We are not obligated to the same broke standard, we offer an experiential learning environment, and we do not let policy dictate our educational plans. Out of the Box if you will.
In our collective opinion removing the girls from their mentors and their horses without so much as a good-bye was sadly the wrong thing to do. Putting the clients of Beacon Center first should be of the utmost importance, not protecting exposures allowed by Beacon House staff members. What happened here was not congruent with the mission statement at the Beacon Center. This was in no way in the best interest of the young women participating, these young people have already had so many people walk out of their lives, this was just one more disappointment for them, re-enforcing their fear of attachment.
Zuma’s Rescue Ranch along with The University of Denver have developed a better method of reaching these at risk youth, which was sadly ignored by the Beacon Center.
Breaking the mold is what really needs to happen, the status quo is failing our children.
Won’t you join Zuma’s in making a better path for these kids, Don’t stick with a failed system just because “this is how it is done” or” This is how we keep our license” If it is broken…… FIX IT!
Zuma’s has fixed it, Zuma’s has a better way and it is time to be” out with the old and in with the new.”
Zuma's Rescue Ranch 