Valiant House will help traumatized children heal
Therapeutic group home set to open in Wolcott will help young boys overcome trauma with clinical treatment in home-like environment.
WATERBURY (May 21, 2007) — The Child Guidance Clinic of Greater Waterbury will open a therapeutic group home in Wolcott, Conn., in August 2007 that will allow traumatized boys, aged 9-13, to receive clinical treatment in a home-like environment with 24-hour supervision by trained professionals.
Valiant House, located at 24 Spindle Hill Road in Wolcott, will serve children who have suffered severe trauma, the details of which cannot be revealed in order to protect their privacy.
Valiant House is designed to be a transitional environment that will not only help the children heal, but also help them learn how to live as conscientious members of a family and community.
“These boys are victims. For most of us, it’s hard to imagine the kind of lives they’ve had,” said Gary Steck, executive director of the Child Guidance Clinic. “Some of the boys we’ve served have survived years of parental neglect and emotional cruelty so severe that at times it bordered on torture.”
“If these children were to be institutionalized, they would receive 24-hour therapeutic care, but they would not be taught how to function as responsible members of a family and community,” Steck said.
Valiant House aims to do both. It is based on a proven model of care that puts severely traumatized children in a residential setting with a trained professional staff that uses state-of-the-art therapeutic approaches to help them overcome their psychological struggles. “Valiant House will open the door to a normal life for these boys,” Steck said.
Valiant House will serve five boys at a time. Each will likely live there at least a year and attend local schools. Once they reach the age of 14, they will be transferred to another care environment.
Valiant House will be staffed by 20 trained employees who will not only care for the children, but also model the kind of behavior that is expected of responsible members of a family. A minimum of two employees will be in the house and awake at all times. All household activities are scheduled and monitored as part of the children’s 24-hour supervision.
Valiant House is the second therapeutic group home run by the Child Guidance Clinic. The first, Paladin House, opened in Waterbury in January 2006. It was named after a “paladin,” or honorable knight and protector of children.
Both properties are owned by Wethersfield, Conn.-based Corporation for Independent Living (CIL), a non-profit housing development corporation that builds supportive housing for people with disabilities and those in need of support services, like the children at Valiant House and Paladin House. Since CIL was founded in 1979, it has developed nearly 1,500 homes and served more than 5,000 individuals.
CIL bought the house at 24 Spindle Hill Road in Wolcott on May 16, 2007 for $235,000. CIL leases the home to the Child Guidance Clinic, which operates it. The Child Guidance Clinic pays for the operation of its therapeutic group homes with funds from the state Department of Children and Families, as well as money raised through private donations. Most of the furnishings and personal items in Paladin House were paid for with more than $15,000 in private donations.
The renovations necessary to transform the property at 24 Spindle Hill Road into a therapeutic group home will begin shortly.
CIL selected the property for Valiant House because it met the wide range of criteria required to convert a residence into a therapeutic group home. Among other things, those criteria include: cost, adequate space for the children and staff and off-street parking. Due to these various criteria, very few properties can be considered for therapeutic group homes.
State and federal laws exempt therapeutic group homes with six or fewer beds from local zoning approvals in an effort to protect those with disabilities, like the children who will live at Valiant House, from discrimination.
However, Steck said, the Child Guidance Clinic understands that local officials and neighbors may have questions or concerns about Valiant House. As a result, the agency notified neighbors and local leaders about the project immediately after CIL closed on the property and has already scheduled a meeting with neighbors to discuss the project.
“Valiant House will be a good neighbor,” Steck said. “The community has nothing to fear from these children. They are victims — not perpetrators — and they are looking to us for help.”
Leonard Mecca, a longtime Wolcott resident and president of AI-Tek Instruments Cheshire, Conn., supports the decision to locate the home in his hometown. Mecca and his wife, Maribeth, are both donors to the Child Guidance Clinic. “My wife and I are gratified that the clinic’s newest home is opening in our community,” Mecca said. “These children need our help. They have nowhere else to turn for a chance at a normal life.”
The Child Guidance Clinic is a regional non-profit agency that helps more than 5,000 children, adolescents and families each year through an array of treatment and prevention programs.
Its mission is to provide quality behavioral health services for children, adolescents, parents and families from the greater Waterbury area without regard to their ability to pay. In addition to therapeutic group homes, the Child Guidance Clinic offers:
· Treatment for victims of abuse;
· Investigative interviews of victims of child abuse;
· Emergency mobile psychiatric response to home, school and community crises;
· Intensive in-home treatment; and
· Child abuse prevention and family support.