About us
What are STRTPs?
"Effective January 1, 2017, Assembly Bill (AB) 403 (Chaptered 773, Statues of 2015) established a new community care facility category called Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP). An STRTP is a residential facility operated by a public agency or private organization that provides an integrated program of specialized and intensive care and supervision, services and supports, treatment, and short-term 24-hour care and supervision children and non-minor dependents. The care and supervision provided by a STRTP shall be as otherwise permitted by law. Private STRTPs shall be organized and operated on a nonprofit basis." (Source: State of California announcement, 2017, Department of Child, Family and Adult Services (DCFS))
Executive Team
Marthe Mournier (Founder) and Don Hough (CEO) are licensed by the State of California as STRTP Program Administrators. They are professionals who have extensive experience in establishing and operating children's group homes as well as child development. With Marthe's 20+ years of experience in group homes, the social welfare system, and her career support for 3,500+ children, she is well positioned to lead the establishment of our STRTP facility. Don has 35+ years experience in general management, 360 degree view of P&L, operations, administration, partner relationships, negotiating, and fundraising.
We are committed to the children in our care and strive to exhibit our deepest love for each child with the goal of:
- Reuniting with their biological family,
- Transitioning to a licensed Resource Family Approval (RFA/foster family) home, or
- Being evaluated to extend their time in our STRTP for further treatment.
Mission Statement
Our children. Our future.
While our mission statement is brief, it embodies our overall philosophy. We realize that the children in our care are far from being the often-perceived "problem" children. We know that each child has hopes and dreams. By providing our specialized mental health & therapeutic services, we support a gateway to make it possible for each child's potential to be freed. Our children are our future. Whether they choose to become an astronaut, a doctor, an engineer, a consultant, a social worker, a chef, or whatever they may choose to pursue, we know that our behavioral coaching along with other therapeutic approaches can contribute to each child's hopes and dreams for their futures. And ours.
Vision Statement
To inspire hope, recovery, and transition in our children by stimulating breakthroughs in the way the children adapt/respond to change, adopt concepts new to them, and learn about advantageous life choices so they can live a life full of positivity while facing life challenges without fear or intimidation.
Our Values
Compassion, acceptance, and belief in self, steadfast stabilization, continuous series of successes, no matter how small, thoughtful planning - all with the child's best interest in constant focus.
Our Purpose
As a 501c3), MM Sacred Heart Children & Family purpose is to provide enabling services that will allow children to return to a life that makes it possible for them to reconnect with their childhood in spite of the mental trauma and loss that they have experienced in the past. We ensure that each child's family is also involved continuously throughout the process so that there can be continuity of care from the point of transition from our care their family environment.
Our Methods
We serve children ranging in age from 7-17 years of age. Our approach integrates, utilizes, and complies with California’s Core Practice Model (a standardized mental health care program that all STRTP facilities must provide to our children). To complement and enhance the Core Practice Model, we engage with specialized mental health care experts who provide behavioral coaching for our children. This coaching embraces Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning, Watson’s Classical Conditioning, Skinner’s Operant Conditioning, and other methods for treating mental health issues, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TB-CBT), and sessions. Our coaching is focused on helping the children address the root of each child’s specific behavioral challenges. Each child will receive positive behavioral support to address his/her needs and empower them to make positive and safe life choices.
Our Goals
Our program is developed using established practices used in the fields of psychology, social services, external expertise, and mental health domain experts who have been consulted in the development of our approach to treatment. Our key goals are:
- To protect and prevent children from further trauma. Our staff members will ensure this safety and protection by leveraging our policies, procedures, practices, and partners. These are geared towards ensuring that the children’s rights are preserved while supporting the notion that the most fragile and of children feel safe and protected both physically and environmentally.
- To be needs-driven and based on the unique course of treatment required by each child. With children, there is no “one size fits all” approach, therefore, we must carefully assess the course of treatment that will be required to transition each child successfully into an RFA home. Specific methods and tools that work with one child may not resonate with another child requiring a wide-spanning set of tools, methods, and approaches for addressing the needs of each child.
- Focused on strengths and needs services and focus on the needs and strengths of each child, while maintaining a focus on their family. By focusing on needs and strengths, we divert the focus for the need to “fix” a child and instead change the focus to look at each child’s unique needs as well as leverage their strengths. The eventual goal is to provide the ability to reunify with families, emancipate when appropriate, to return to a public school whenever possible, and possible to be steadily employed in a job of the child’s choosing. These will be detailed in each child’s individual treatment plan.
- Designed to provide for permanency and stability for children using a collaborative approach that has a strong foundation in the community. We will work closely with the children, family members, placement agencies, and other available services that can make it possible for children to have an integrated network of services even after they leave our care.
- Services for children are oriented around choice and preferences. We want the children to experience how their choices and preferences can affect how we proceed with each child. We will maintain policies, procedures, and practices that ensure each child’s wishes take priority in their on-going care while maintaining a careful balance to our treatment approach for each child. In this way, the children can experience first-hand how they are directly involved in the development of solutions that facilitate their ability to care for themselves later on.
- Incorporating both formal and informal resources to assist families with a successful transition from our professional care to the next step in the child’s continued success. We will make sure that our program links to culturally appropriate resources. Our program incorporates a variety of informal resources that the children can take advantage of to enhance and extend the formal resources that we will provide.
- Culturally competent and respectful of the culture of the children and their families. We will ensure that every person, agency, and service partner understand, respect, and celebrate the diversity of each child and their family and will incorporate in all aspects of our services.
- Our services will be made available to the children and their families in as accessible a manner as possible. We want to ensure that our services can be accessed as easily and readily as possible, whether the access is in person, by phone, teleconference, online technologies, and other approaches, including going directly to the family community, wherever they may be located (in specific cases).
About Licensure
A STRTP is licensed by the Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) of the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) pursuant to Health and Safety Code (HSC) section 1562.01 and other applicable laws. As authorized by AB 403, CDSS also issued Interim Licensing Standards (ILS) to further clarify and implement the Continuum of Care Reform provisions that govern STRTPs. See also Assembly Bill 1997 (Chaptered 612, Statutes of 2016).
Services
MM Sacred Heart provides for every need, for every child in our care in a family home styled setting. Our mental health program is dedicated to reducing or eliminating the children’s need for heavy psychotropic drugs. Since we are limited to a six (6) month timeframe with each child, time is of the essence to work intensely with each child to enable them to know and understand what living in a home environment is really like and to better prepare them to transition to either a licensed Resource Family Approval (RFA/foster family) home or to be reunited with their biological family.
We will focus on mental health services including, but not limited to:
- General mental health services (assessments, plan development, personalized therapy, rehabilitation)
- Behavioral coaching
- Group therapy
- Crisis intervention
- Therapeutic behavioral adjustments
- Intensive day treatments (as required)
- Day rehabilitation services
- Medication support services (for psychotropic drugs)
- Targeted case management
- Crisis stabilization
- Intensive home-based services.
Additionally, we will provide:
- Housing
- Transportation
- Meals and snacks
- Clothing
- Education and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)
- On-site and in-office professional mental health care
- Nutrition services
- Life enriching activities for the children, and
- A constant stream of love and care.
Fundraising Estate Sales and Auctions
MM Sacred Heart regularly conducts a number of different fundraising activities. Key to our fundraising is our 1000 square feet of warehouse space located in Chatsworth, California. We frequently update our Facebook business page at: https://www.facebook.com/mmsacredheartcfs/ regarding fundraising estate sales and auctions that are conducted from our warehouse. All proceeds go directly back into our operating funds to support our children. Here are some of the items that we have had in our warehouse.
Fundraising Estate Sales:
Our next fundraising estate sale information can be found by clicking here:
Fundraising Auctions:
We conduct fundraising auctions as well. We will post the most current link to our next auction here where you will find numerous items that will be sold via a Facebook Live virtual auction with a live auctioneer.
Our next fundraising auction can be found by clicking here:
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The long term vision for MM Sacred Heart Children & Family Services is to establish multiple short-term residential therapeutic programs (STRTP) in as many facilities as can be accomplished within the boundaries set forth by the State of California. Our goals include:
- Obtaining and developing STRTP facilities to house children ranging in age from 7-17 with specialized mental health programs,
- Obtaining and developing STRTP facilities in Los Angeles County, Ventura County, and/or Kern County to house commercially sexually exploited / trafficked children (CSEC) ranging in age from 7 - 17, and
- Obtaining and developing a large campus-type property suitable for establishing an STRTP facility that would include housing for the children, an on-site school, on-site medical care, on-site mental health therapy, and other children's services.
We are
+1 661 388 9844
info@mmsacredheartcfs.org
MM Sacred Heart Children & Family Services
Phone:
E-mail:
