The mission of the Pathway Program is to:

Eliminate sexual re-offending

The program offers offense-specific counseling for the residents and their families.  The average length of stay is 8 months, however, this varies greatly on the resident’s progress in treatment and their home situation.  The residents earn home visits after completion of the initial phase of the program depending on their behavior and, again, considering the home situation and risk to other family and community members.

The residents participate in weekly group counseling with a master’s level therapist as well as monthly psychosexual education classes.  The treatment incorporates the Pathway Guided Workbook curriculum that educates the residents on the offense cycle, facilitates processing of issues surrounding their offense and possible previous victimization, and develops a Relapse Prevention Plan so the residents are better able to deal with high risk situations in the future.  The residents’ parents/guardians are involved in mandatory bi-weekly group counseling, also, with a therapist that specializes in dealing with the unique issues surrounding their son’s offense and it’s effects on the entire family.  In addition, the residents and their guardians meet monthly for family group counseling facilitated by the same therapist.  The combination of all three-treatment groups results in a comprehensive approach to what is clearly the entire family’s problem.

The residential component of the program offers a four level system that deals with the residents’ day to day group home behavior and school behavior as well as their progress in treatment.  The residents must work for level advancement to gain privileges in a similar style to many more formal behavior modification programs.  Each level of advancement is associated with meeting a treatment goal as well as progress in their academic and behavioral performances which are monitored very closely.

Other treatment issues can be addressed in conjunction with the in-house treatment program, provided these needs do not hinder the residents’ ability to benefit from primary sexual offense treatment.  For example, chemical abuse issues may be treated in conjunction with their primary sexual offense treatment program.  Three notable exceptions are youth who have considerable psychological or psychiatric problems that affect his ability to function in the group home, as well as in group, youth who have considerable learning disabilities that affect his ability to grasp the concepts key to successful treatment and youth whose behavior is too aggressive to be considered for a community based treatment program.

It is also important that the residents be at similar developmental stages.  Sexual development is often different between adolescents and pre-adolescents.  Treatment issues also differ significantly, despite similar offense characteristics; consequently, younger clients can not be appropriately treated in groups with older boys.

Upon successful completion of the Pathway Program, residents will: 

1. Be able to identify difficult situations and triggers.
2. Be able to identify early warning signals.
3. Be able to avoid high-risk situations.
4. Be able to escape high-risk situations.

Following release from the Pathway Program, clients and their families continue to receive an additional three (3) months of Aftercare Services. These services include:  supervision, community support, and support for their Relapse Prevention Plan.  During that time, they meet weekly with a licensed therapist for one and a half hours and they meet weekly with their assigned Case Management Officer.