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Family and Youth Services |
Thresholds Programs for Family and Youth
Thresholds offers groundbreaking programs for young adults, young mothers and their children in our Mothers’ Project and Young Adult Program. These programs give young people the skills and supports they need to reduce the cycle of the negative impacts of mental illness on family, upbringing, education and career development.
Thresholds Mothers’ Project
The first in the nation when founded in 1976, Thresholds Mothers' Project seeks to stabilize and normalize the family unit and provide a social support network for its members. Rising a child is a challenge itself; managing illness and the family is even more complicated, but doable. Experienced staff at Thresholds help women with mental illness become better mothers, capable of taking care of the family and themselves.
At Thresholds, we teach independent living and parenting skills because only a confident recovery member can successfully handle the challenges of parenthood. There are practical as well as emotional and mental health issues involved, and at Thresholds, we address them all.
While adult members are at the program, their children (infant to school age) attend therapeutic classrooms. Some families may reside in agency-owned group housing that is specifically designed for parenting members. These residences, available on a limited basis, provide supervised care, a crisis bed, and in some cases, childcare. Our Parenting Assessment Team does ongoing evaluation of the parenting capacity of people with mental illness, helping to ensure successful and lasting recovery.
Our Mothers' Project has become nationally known because it works. In 1993, Tipper Gore, President Clinton’s mental health policy advisor, recognized the program as one that "sets an example for the nation to follow."
The Loren Juhl Young Adult Program
The transition from teenager to young adult is difficult for everybody, and it's only made more so for young people with mental illness. Our Loren Juhl Young Adult Program, established in 1974, provides services for adolescents ages 16 to 21 with serious mental illness. Because this is such an important and complex period in one's life, Thresholds takes a comprehensive approach to recovery. We feel the skills and abilities learned at this age are essential to success as an adult member of a community.
We help adolescents negotiate the major developmental issues at this age:
- identity formation
- creating and maintaining lasting and close relationships
- development of a sense of caring
- self-esteem via achievement
- separation from family (autonomy)
- commitment to a vocation
We take a comprehensive approach to service. Structure, behavioral management, and group processes are at the core of the Thresholds Young Adult Programs. In addition to traditional group and individual therapy, members may also receive vocational training and placement, educational services, and housing. Our professional staff designs individual treatment plans for each member based on their personal needs. And as we all know, young adults have very unique (and sometimes challenging) personal needs.
The Thresholds School
Thresholds' School is a secondary education program designed specifically for young adults with mental illness. Established in 1969, the school helps students earn a high school diploma. We provide a therapeutic educational program for mentally ill and emotionally disturbed adolescents and young adults, many with learning disabilities. The student/teacher ratio is 5:1, which allows our teachers more time and energy to devote to students' individual needs. Because vocational training is an essential element to most of our recovery programs, it is important for these young adults to earn their diplomas and be thinking about how they can become self-sustaining and contribute to their communities.
The Thresholds School is accredited by the North Central Association and is approved and licensed by the Illinois State Board of Education.
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Be Inspired
Thresholds has never been a more important resource. Watch this inspiring video to hear more about our programs, services and recovery stories. Watch Video
Private Pay Clients
Thresholds has several programs for private pay clients including residential and recovery services. For more information click here!
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Our Mission
Thresholds assists and inspires people with severe mental illnesses to reclaim their lives by providing the supports, skills and the respectful encouragement that they need to achieve hopeful and successful futures.
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