George H and Irene L Walker Home for Children Inc

Mission

Walker's mission is to help the most troubled, and troubling, children who can be safely maintained in a group setting. These children have shown themselves to be treatment-resistant. Typically, they have experienced failure in every treatment model, including: mainstream classroom settings, special education programs, both individual and family counseling, and psychopharmacological trials. Most Walker children have had at least one psychiatric hospitalization, and many have had more than one. The minimum expectations for Walker's intervention are: - The prevention of any further trauma to the child, the stabilization of their behavior, and their protection from harm; - The development or improvement of the child's ability to make meaningful human and family connections; and - The acquisition of concrete academic and social skills that will improve the child's ability to participate in family and society. The Walker Home and School serves the communities of Massachusetts by delivering the highest quality education and therapeutic care to the Commonwealth's most troubled children, while providing training and support to their families, caregivers, and teachers so that a continuum of care may be maintained. Walker works to restore hope, self-confidence, safety, and trust in children who suffer from the onset of mental illness, neurologically-based disorders, learning disabilities, and/or who have been emotionally damaged by exposure to trauma such as physical or sexual abuse. As a result, these children struggle and repeatedly fail socially and academically, and/or exhibit violent or destructive behavior that endangers themselves or others.

Programs

The Walker Home and School provides services to the most troubled children and their families, children whose emotional, learning, and behavioral issues are so extreme they cannot be accommodated in their own community. In addition to on-campus residential and academic programs, Walker works with schools throughout eastern and central Massachusetts, providing direct services to children at risk and to professionals who are struggling to work with the children so they can stay in the community. Walker has over 100 children on campus every day and serves several hundred children in their home communities.