Supporting, Mentoring and Restoring Teens

Provide a lifetime of friendship, support, and mentoring to MMA residents and discharges toward their achievement of responsible citizenship--on earth and in the kingdom of heaven. To grow MMA resident teens into women with high self-esteem who respect themselves and earn the respect of others, and who are rich in life skills -- including biblical knowledge, Christian worldview, and acts of responsible citizenship.

There are two primary SMART programs that provide goods, services, or funds to individuals. The first of these programs is the outreach program to teen girls in an AZ residential treatment center (RTC). Each girl is typically in the RTC from a few months to more than a year. Length of stay is determined by the girl's progress in her program and the expectations of the agency that placed, and paid for, her treatment. While the girls are in treatment, they attend an on-campus school Monday through Friday, participate in group and individual therapy sessions, and may take part in interschool sports, talent shows, field trips, and local day trips. The SMART outreach program meets the girls in all of these settings. This SMART program offers craft activities, worship services, academic tutoring, personal mentoring, and on and off-campus entertainment events to the girls, both individually and as groups. Due to the impact of the drug and gang cultures on the families of many of the girls, they often have limited personal outside support from families while they are at the RTC; some have no personal contact with any family members the entire time they are in treatment. SMART personnel seek to supplement these missing relationships with healthy adults by regularly visiting the campus to befriend the girls. SMART personnel attend talent shows, sporting events, and other performances and competitions that the girls participate in. In coordination with paid RTC staff, SMART provides books, magazines, Bibles, craft materials, and articles of clothing or toiletries to those girls who have no one else to provide these items. A significant service to the girls by SMART personnel is to simply sit and talk or read with a girl one-on-one; this can have a major impact on a teen girl's self-esteem and mental health. Spending time talking with a girl about her career goals, hobbies, dreams of travel, or college plans; or to tutor her in her current academic work; empowers her through her realizing that others beyond the professionals in her life truly care about her future. Beyond personal needs, SMART may provide books for the school library, equipment to supplement the school athletic program, and DVDs to the dormitory groups. Through these donations, many girls over a long period may benefit. SMART personnel also participate in school field trips, sometimes providing lunch at a restaurant instead of a packed box lunch, to enhance that sense of personal self-respect for the girls. To supplement healthy entertainment options the girls experience in treatment, SMART also takes groups of girls to local theaters for a break from campus life.
The second SMART program is an aftercare program that aims to supplement the needs of the girls and young women - as they age out of youth services - once they are discharged from the RTC. The SMART aftercare program is tailored to the personal needs of each RTC alumna. These alumnae, upon discharge, normally go to one of four living situations: with family members, to state-sponsored group or foster living, to independent living, or to the lifetime commitment program (LCP). This LCP is a follow-on program offered by the management of the RTC to alumna who are ready to start college or a work program and have met certain criteria of responsibility. SMART seeks to enable the alumnae to succeed in any of these options. SMART follows a set of developed life skill packages to guide our program and the choices of our clients. These life skills address financial planning, employment practices, academic milestones, relationships development, reasoning skills, use of social media, anger control, role models, faith practices, and others. These life skills are taught, role modeled, practiced and encouraged through regular personal interaction with the alumna right in the midst of her living situation. SMART collaborates with families, probation offices, case workers, churches and other service providers in identifying and addressing the needs of the young ladies. Near the time a resident is being discharged from the RTC, SMART seeks to develop an 'alumna support agreement' with her based on her expected living situation and needs. This agreement lays out the services SMART anticipates providing to the alumna and the expectations SMART has regarding her choices, behavior and obligations. Interaction between the alumna and SMART may occur through personal contact, phone/text, social media, and USPS mail...

Testimonials

"Helped me a lot throughout my transition into adulthood...