Young people are in residence from 9am Monday morning, through to 12pm Friday each week throughout the school term. The young people return home for the weekends and for school holidays.
Young people are in residence from 9am Monday morning, through to 12pm Friday each week throughout the school term. The young people return home for the weekends and for school holidays.
Throughout each week, our young people attend classes and work on developing their academic, social and life skills. They attend regular counselling sessions with their Family Services Worker, and participate in the residential program which focuses on skills for independent living. This includes cooking, washing, general household chores, shopping, personal hygiene, learning to live positively with others, conflict resolution and communication.
The Residential Carers engage our young people in a range of recreational activities which focus on health, exercise and team building. Some activities in 2016 have included photography, art and music workshops, various sporting activities such as surfing, stand up paddle boarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and social group activities and outings to the beach, movies and local restaurants.
TRANSITION
As the young person’s program approaches completion, which is normally after 6-12 months, a transition plan is either to return to the young person’s former school or to a more suitable alternative educational setting, or employment.
A step-by-step process is developed to make the transition as smooth as possible. A special effort goes into consolidating the work with families, to ensure successful re-integration of the young person full time into the family. Also, there is great emphasis placed on ensuring the young person’s transition to the new educational or work setting. This is supported by the development of appropriate structures to increase the opportunities for a successful outcome.
TOOLS TO ASSIST YOUNG PEOPLE ACADEMICALLY & EMOTIONALLY
The academic tools used to assist a young person during their placement at Dunlea Centre include NAPLAN (years 7 & 9), VALID (years 8 &10), the Neale analysis of reading ability, the South Australian spelling test, Multi lit program and other literacy and numeracy diagnostic tools.
The use of the Achenbach Child Behaviour checklist tool and the Resiliency Scales for children and adolescents tool assist staff in targeting the needs of our young people and in developing strategies to help them move forward behaviourally and emotionally.
The Beck Youth Inventory, DASS21 and Juzt Climate Scale are other instruments that are utilised.
