Marquette agency helps youth in crisis situations
By Tia Platteborze, 13, with editorial assistance by 8-18 Media staff.

Editor’s note: In exchange for access to the youth interviewed for this story 8-18 Media agreed to use first names only.

Far out in the woods south of Marquette is an agency that uses an upbeat and fundamental program to help teach kids the right ways to cope with some bad situations or behave so that they will grow up to be successful adults with a good attitudes
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Teaching Family Homes is a non-profit organization with a motto of “Hope for Children and Families in Crisis.” Established in 1981, the organization was developed by Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Town and today offers family preservation, adoption, counseling, foster care and residential group home services for the Upper Peninsula and surrounding region.

Teaching Family Homes built its large campus on what was formerly known as Marquette County’s “Honor Camp” property, so that it could house its group homes in the same location. The agency’s wooded campus, located at the end of Silver Creek Road in Harvey, has four group homes as well as a special and general education school, offices and recreational facilities.

The agency receives referrals for its group homes from the Department of Human Services, from mental health agencies, and from courts. The kids that get referred to Teaching Family Homes come from a wide geographic area. Many of them come from families that are abusing them or that don’t treat them the way that they should. Others may come from families that let them do what ever they want and as a result they may not have developed a proper sense of responsibility and may have gotten into trouble.

When youth arrive at a group home an individual treatment program is designed for them with set goals, according to Jamie Dieterle Armatti, the Residential Director for the campus.

“ We design each youth’s treatment program as a team. Every program has a social worker and a variety of direct workers that work with the kids,” she said. “We get the kid’s input on their treatment plan, what they want to work on, and how can we help them do that. Then we take all those ideas to the table to help develop the skills, the plan, and the goals for each of the kids.”

In the group homes the kids live like a big family with live-in “parents” or youth care workers and have responsibilities such as schoolwork, chores, bedtimes and wake up times.

Shawn, seventeen, who is originally from downstate Claire, describes his schedule for a typical day.

“ I normally wake up, depending on if we’re going to school or not, around 8:30. We get ready for school. We do our chores. We have our breakfast, and then we go to school,” he said. “By nighttime, I go to bed either at 10:00 p.m. or sometimes 9:30, depending on when I feel like going to sleep.”

The kids have a very structured schedule according to Dieterle Armatti. She gave an outline for a typical day for the kids.

“ In addition to attending school, they’re expected to do daily chores around the house, which include cleaning their rooms, doing dishes, or maybe some yard work,” she said. “They have recreation activities together where they can go play soccer or other games on the sports field. We try to have each day be a feel like it would in a typical family setting so that it feels more normal for the kids. We eat dinner together, help with homework and we have family meetings every night so everybody can learn how to resolve issues between themselves.”

Not all of the kids initially like the program when they arrive, although by the end of their stay most said they began to like it. Some of the kids complain about not being able to see their families all the time, not being able to watch TV when the want to, not being with their friends from home and not being able to slack off and not do their chores. The kids in the program are on a points system where they are rewarded or have points taken away based upon their behaviors. Many did not like the structure of that system, but most agreed that it worked to help them become more responsible.

Shawn does not like waking up in the morning. He listed that as his least favorite thing about life in the group home.

“ I’m sure my staff is probably going to laugh at this because they know I don’t like to get up in the morning,” he said. “That’s probably the worst part, getting woken up and I can’t sleep until twelve anymore.”

Aaron, fourteen, originally from downstate Dowagiac, explained his least favorite thing connected with the program.

“ Probably being on a point card,” he said. “You have to carry it around and go over points all the time.”

Dieterle Armatti explained more about the point system.

“ It is a privilege/reward type of system. All of the kids are on a point card where they earn positive consequences for their appropriate behavior and they have consequences for their inappropriate behavior,” she said. “So at the end of the day they have to weigh out on a point system their appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. By doing that they determine whether they’ve earned privileges or not.”

What are some privileges they can earn? According to Dieterle Armatti they can do things such as watch television, play video games or talk on the telephone. If they haven’t earned privileges for the night they might have to work on some activities related to their goal areas. For example, if they had trouble with anger they might have to work on some anger worksheets or activities with the staff.

Mike, seventeen, from Marquette, said he has changed his life around from being involved in the program.

“ I’ve changed my way of thinking completely from being negative and thinking about people in the wrong ways to stopping that,” he said.

Aaron agreed that the program teaches some valuable lessons.

“ They teach you a lot from your mistakes and help you grow more mature and teach you some discipline,” he said.

Nicole, sixteen, from the Houghton area, has also seen changes since she came to the program.

“ When I first got here I used to be very disrespectful. I didn’t care what people said,” she said. “Now I listen to them and I’m more respectful towards them.”

Shawn agrees; he likes the positive atmosphere at Teaching Family Homes.

“ The best thing about living here is the positive attitude that everybody’s got,” he said. “Even if somebody is feeling down, our staff (is) always trying to help. They make you feel so proud of yourself and what you’re doing here.”

The kids in the program have high hopes for the future. Most have plans that include college.

Nicole hopes to attend Northern Michigan University to become a teacher, hopefully she said, a kindergarten teacher.

Mike has already been accepted at Michigan Tech University and wants to become a veterinarian.

Shawn, a guitar player, would like to make a living with music, but if that doesn’t work out he would like to be a marine biologist. He is looking into attending Alma College near his hometown.

Aaron, meanwhile, knows exactly what he wants to accomplish in the coming years.

“ Hopefully I’ll be out of the program, be at home, probably living a really good life, and graduating high school and going to college,” he said. “I plan to become a luthier and play and build guitars. There’s a guitar building and repairing school down in Georgia. I plan on going there.”

With the skills they have developed through the program the kids in the group homes will be able to go on and have good productive lives.

Dieterle Armatti added that one thing Teaching Family Homes is trying to get out to the public is that there is always a great need for foster families for children who need good homes when they leave our campus.

“ We are actively recruiting foster families for our children who need homes,” she said. “Once the kids have reached success in the group home it’s time for them to move on to a foster or adoptive setting because sometimes they don’t have families to go back to. So we’re working to recruit foster families to provide permanent homes for the children once they’ve graduated from the programs and leave our campus.”

For details, visit: www.teachingfamilyhomes.org or call (906) 249-KIDS.