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by Mary Kay Lutzow (Author), Danel Burchby (Author), Kyla Brown (Author)
This true story highlights the struggles of the staff, adolescents, and administrators over fifteen years at a group home for juvenile girls adjudicated as delinquent. The story takes us through the development on the group home and its growth to meet the needs of teens at risk. The authors, through their own insights, and those of others who worked closely with the girls, tell their stories of how they brought hope and healing to the girls in the group home, the interventions they used, and the unpredictable and often humorous nature of teenagers. Meet the founding mothers of the group home and its subsequent expansion in an effort to meet the needs of more girls at risk. Hear them describe their fears, trials, and perseverance in the face of obstacles both from the group home residents, the community, and the families. Hear the stories of teens such as Abby who came to the group home greatly damaged and brought her dark, fearsome patterns, ultimately causing an emergency situation; Hear Suni's story of "true love" and how it influenced her family patterns before she was ultimately able to gain insight into her distorted thinking patterns. Walk with the authors through holidays in the group home, how they instituted creative interventions like the "potato backpack" and the "pity party" when simple behavior modification did not work, what camping with eight teenage girls was like, and how they navigated fundraisers that turned out to be no fun.
