The outcomes for youth aging out of foster care are alarming.  The rates of homelessness, incarceration, unemployment and failure to complete high school far exceed those of their peers.  And there is a much higher likelihood that these youth will experience mental and behavioral health issues and become involved in the criminal justice system than their non-foster counterparts.[1]

The outcomes of the Missouri Model speak for themselves.  Not only does the program report significant reductions in violence while youth are enrolled in the program, but of even more significance, over 90 percent of youth juvenile offenders avoid re-incarceration for three years or more after graduating from the program. Moreover, the model enforces the importance of academic achievement and reports all time high graduation and GED rates; 90 percent of youth earn high school credits, 48 percent return to public schools, and 70 percent progress more rapidly than same-age peers in core subjects.[2]

Key characteristics of the Missouri Model:

 -  Youth live in smaller facilities located near the youths’ homes and families, rather than incar­cerating delinquent youth in large, distant, prisonlike training schools.

-  Youth live in closely supervised small groups.  A rigorous group treatment process offers extensive and ongoing individual attention, rather than isolat­ing confined youth in individual cells or leaving them to fend for themselves among a crowd of delinquent peers.

-  Youth are kept safe not only from physical aggression but also from ridicule and emotional abuse; the Model achieves this through constant staff supervision and supportive peer relationships rather than through coercive techniques that are common­place in most youth corrections systems.

-  Staff helps youth to develop academic, pre-vocational, and communica­tions skills that improve their ability to succeed following release — along with crucial insights into the roots of their delinquent behavior and new social competence to acknowledge and solve personal problems.

-  Staff reaches out to family members and involves them both as partners in the treatment process and as allies in planning for success in the aftercare transition, rather than keeping families at a distance and treating them as the source of delinquent youths’ problems.

-  The Model provides considerable support and supervision for youth transitioning home from a residential facility — conducting inten­sive aftercare planning prior to release, moni­toring and mentoring youth closely in the first crucial weeks following release, and working hard to enroll them in school, place them in jobs, and/or sign them up for extracurricular activities in their home communities.

The young people will spend all of their time in the program with their treatment team. The teams will sleep in adjacent dorm rooms, eat together, study together, exercise together, do chores together, and attend daily therapy sessions together—always under the supervision of the program staff.  Youth are taught to de-escalate fights among the group.  The groups will have rotating entry and exit: young people leave the group when they are ready to return home, and new youth will come in to take their place. The average length of stay for each resident will be six months.

These small groups represent the fulcrum of the treatment process. The constancy of the group will prevent young people from hiding or withdrawing.  They will be supported not only by the staff, but also their peers, and will be held accountable by the group for any disruptive, disrespectful, or destructive behavior. Rather than facing punishment when they act out, the youth will be called upon to explain their thoughts and feelings at daily group meetings, to explore how the current misbehavior relates to the their delinquency, and to reflect upon how their behavior impacts others.

As part of the treatment process, youth will attend an on-site school developed by The Foundling in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.  Two on-site classrooms will be designated for this purpose and will be staffed by two Department of Education certified Special Education teachers, who will be fully trained in the Missouri Model and will be integral members of the treatment team.  To preserve the group treatment approach, the youth will attend all classes with their group team members.