Given the proper care and training, the youth in our programs can and will change positively.  Education, support, structure, resources, time management, and self exploration are essential in enabling these youth to meet their emotional, spiritual, physical, and relational needs in a positive pro-social manner.

In conjunction with the Department of Juvenile Justice, DJJ, mission to protect the public by reducing juvenile crime in Florida, JoAnn Bridges Academy provides the resources to enable youth to become self-sufficient, contributing members of society.

JoAnn Bridges Academy is a residential facility which houses court adjudicated female youth from the ages of 12 – 18 years of age.  The program, six to nine months in length, utilizes a positive peer enhancement approach, progressive level system, emotions management, and practical application of learned alternative thinking and decision making.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS:
·    Positive Peer Enhancement      * Emotions Management       * Beautification classes
·    Seven Thinking Patterns                 * Recreation/Team Building  * Home economics
·    Seven Levels of Intervention       * Individual Ed. planning      * Creative Expression       
·    Restitution/Community Service  * Jaguar Club   
·    Progressive Level System      * Victim Empathy          *Cognitive Behavior Model
·    Individual Evaluation Process    * Chemical Dependency Education/Prevention
·    Group/Individual Counseling    * Groups (problem solving, educational, focus)

·    Arise Curriculum:  life skills, parenting, child development, self-esteem, networking, employment skills, learning strategies/time management, health & hygiene,  trauma & abuse resolution.
·    Extra-curricular activities – athletics, choir, newspaper, drama club, dance
·    Emphasis on gender specific programming including mentoring, role modeling, and researching the roles of women throughout history and in various cultures.  Gender specific programming utilizes an array of relationships and perceptions to draw a girl into a new style of living while insuring her physical, and emotional needs are being met as she considers and later changes her patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.

STUDENT PROFILE:
·    females ages 12-18 with a primary diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant
·    a low degree of empathy for others and poor means-to-end reasoning
·    low self-esteem, poor social skills, and/or low functioning
·    females on medications for treatment of ADHD and depression
·    no profound psychotic behavior displayed, but demonstrates learned negative behavioral patterns that victimize others
·    a lack of self-discipline and history of non-compliant behaviors
·    a high degree of impulsiveness and problems with emotion management and/or aggression