Click here to view The Marsh Foundation’s Residential Services brochure.
Nearly everything a child needs is located right on The Marsh Foundation’s expansive 1,400 acre campus. An administration building houses a school, brightly painted cafeteria and auditorium. Large, three-story brick group homes feature recreation rooms and private bedrooms. In addition, all group homes have recently been remodeled by the Marsh maintenance and carpentry staff. The campus also offers a gymnasium, farm, garden, pond, wooded areas and playgrounds.
All three group homes on campus, Clymer, Vance and Marsh Halls, are licensed to house up to 10 boys. The homes are staffed 24-hours a day by highly trained staff who consistently provide behavioral treatment using the Teaching-Family Model. The homes are multi-staff secure. Foster Care is provided as a service to children within The Marsh Foundation’s continuum of care. After meeting specific treatment goals within the group homes, children can transition to Foster Care with the ultimate goal of permanent placement or reunification with family.
The Marsh Foundation is a supportive member of the Teaching-Family Association and is committed to the Teaching-Family Model of care (TFM). TFM is a unique approach to human services characterized by clearly defined goals, integrated support systems and a set of essential elements. The model is not a punishment model or traditional counseling model. Programs emphasize the positive teaching of functional skills and behaviors. It is a combination of low tolerance for poor behaviors and high praise for good behaviors. TFM promotes the development of relationships with clients that are maintained through trust, respect and positive regard within professional boundaries. The Marsh Foundation has been using components of the Teaching-Family Model since 1991.
The Marsh Foundation provides a continuum of care that includes a Foster Care Program and adoption. The Marsh believes that all children have the right to love, protection and to be cared for by a committed family.
The Marsh Foundation’s Foster Care Program provides service to youth from birth to age 18. In Family Foster Care, trained foster parents provide care for youth of all ages in need of a safe placement. In addition, we dually license families as both foster and adoptive homes. These homes are then legally able to provide placement for both foster and adoptive children in case they are open to the possibility of adoption in the future.
The Marsh Foundation offers an array of clinical services to clients. Services can include individual counseling, group counseling, family services, community support programs and/or home-based services.
The Marsh Foundation employs a full-time activities coordinator to plan and coordinate events and projects for the youth. These activities are designed to contribute to a holistic treatment approach. Youth participate in team building, garden activities, community service projects, 4-H projects, nature study, an extensive horse program and athletics.
The Marsh Foundation campus features three licensed residential group homes. Each home can accommodate up to 10 youth. All homes offer private bedrooms for each youth. The group homes are staffed 24 hours a day, including awake-overnight staff.
The Marsh Foundation provides effective behavioral interventions which are trauma sensitive for all children in care. Each youth has an individualized plan with specific target areas. Throughout treatment, intervention is focused on replacing maladaptive responses and implementing new learned skills sets to utilize within the identified discharge plan. By implementing this new approach, it provides the youth an alternative, healthy way to reintegrate into the existing family dynamic and preserve already established relationships and supports.