Amal Youth and Family Centre provides out-of-home care, across Newfoundland and Labrador, to children and youth who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. Young people who are referred to Amal for out-of-home care are usually considered to have complex needs and challenging behaviours, and require an intensive, therapeutic placement option. All programs are individualized to meet the needs of specific young people.
Amal is committed to providing high quality standards of care for all young people. Amal provides supportive, nurturing, and therapeutic environments for young people based on the following:
• All behaviour is purposeful and needs-based, and all individuals have needs that must be met in order for healthy development to occur. These include, but are not limited to, needs for safety, security, trust, belonging, affection, recognition, power, competence, self-esteem, generosity, and autonomy.
• Assessment and intervention is developmental, trauma informed, and focused on providing a rich array of diverse and reparative experiences to stimulate growth in all functional domains.
• There is a strong focus on relational practice, providing positive social interactions, and facilitating the development of healthy relationships and a sense of belonging.
• Intervention is needs-led, focused on identifying the needs underlying young people’s behaviours, and helping them to meet these needs in healthier ways.
• Intervention is strength-based, individualized and focused on promoting resiliency, competence and opportunities for young people to experience success.
• Families and/or guardians are considered an integral part of the therapeutic process.
• Amal will respect, promote and protect the rights of all young people in its care. Young people and families will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion, culture or sexuality.
• Amal will employ highly trained, skilled and competent staff while also providing ongoing staff development and training opportunities.
In order to deliver a truly therapeutic environment for young people in out-of-home care, a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach is required. The following components are considered critical to the provision of quality care in our out-of-home care programs:
• Structure, Routine and Predictability
• Experiential Counselling: The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events
• Activity Programming
• Relational Practice
• Family Engagement
• Cultural Connecting
• Academic Program
• Crisis Intervention
Amal provides training to all staff in the following areas:
- First Aid/CPR
- Understanding and Dealing with Challenging Behaviours
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
- Trauma
- Child and Youth Development
- Understanding and Managing Aggressive Behaviour (UMAB)
- Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families (TCI)
- The PersonBrain™ Model
- Vicarious Trauma
- The Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events (DLE)
- Working with Families
Training is ongoing throughout the employment period and tailored to meet the developmental needs of staff, and the special needs of individual young people and families in areas such as FASD, sexualized behaviour, and intellectual disabilities. All efforts are made to ensure that the staff are informed and educated in areas that are relevant to each child. Additionally, employees are sponsored to attend local, national and international workshops and conferences in relevant areas.