Ashlan is leaving Venture Academy for troubled teens with a future that looks brighter than the bleak one she was heading towards. Today, just a few months from graduating high school, she is a sober 17-year-old who is excited about reconnecting with her family, finishing high school, and studying nursing in Montreal. “Before I came here I…
In the late 90s, parents shocked by the Columbine High School shootings held their kids tight and asked themselves what they could do to protect their children from “monsters” with guns.
The question they should have been asking was “How do I keep my kid from becoming the troubled teen holding the gun?”
Troubled teens unsuccessful in traditional counseling environments are finding success in long-term treatment programs that provide parents with powerful alternative to boot camps for girls and boot camps for boys. A study conducted by the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs found teens with serious emotional and behavioural issues including ADHD, depression, and oppositional defiant…
Love may not last forever, but dirty photos sent between cell phones do. That message is one educators are trying to get across to teens naively texting one another revealing photos that could haunt them for the rest of their lives. Bill Alberts, from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, says it’s…
Schools using discipline to deal with troubled teens are missing the opportunity to understand problem behaviour that must be identified before it can be fixed. Psychologist Ross Greene says schools focus on disciplining teens when what they should do is identify lagging skills that keep troubled teens from behaving in the first place. “We’re losing…
Teen boot camps are heading towards extinction after what has been described as a treatment experiment gone wrong. Corrections expert Dr. Edward Latessa has studied the issue extensively and says most boot camp operators have either gone out of business or modified their programs to emphasize treatment and rehabilitation. Latessa, a juvenile justice expert at…
Venture Academy for Troubled Teens has expanded into Ontario where it has opened a second residential treatment program for teens struggling with problems ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and criminal behaviour. The new academy, which provides an alternative to boot camp for troubled teens in Canada, is located one hour…
Parents who think they can pinpoint when their teen’s life went off the rails are often surprised to learn how wrong they are. Venture Academy therapist and clinical director Connie Buckle says parents will often point to a teen’s drug use or criminal behaviour as the problem when in fact it is merely a symptom…
At what point do parents throw up their hands in frustration and say “Enough!” We need help local resources just don’t seem able to provide. That question is one parents living with a troubled teen invariably find themselves asking. For some, the answer comes while completing an online survey created by the Venture Academy for…
Four weeks at Venture Academy taught Rachel something she may never have learned otherwise: that her mother really did love her. “I’d been here about a month when I realized she does love me and that she wouldn’t send me to this program to get help for both of us if she didn’t care,” said…