The residential program at Kolburne is highly structured and consists of several components designed to support students’ social, behavioral and treatment goals within the therapeutic milieu:
PAYA
Kolburne uses the PAYA program (Preparing Adolescents for Young Adulthood), developed by the Department of Social Services and the Child Welfare League of America, as a basis for its many life skills activities and programs to foster independent living. All Kolburne residential students thirteen or older participate in the PAYA activity programs.
The PAYA program centers around four modules of living skills: Money, Home and Food Management; Personal Care, Health, Social Skills, and Safety; Education, Job Seeking and Job Maintenance; and Housing, Transportation and Recreation.
PAYA activities address such areas as Healthy Relationships, Time Management, Hygiene, Menu Planning, Grocery Shopping, Filling out Job Applications, Mock Job Interviews, Budget Planning, and Banking.
Milieu Instructors are responsible for implementing PAYA program activities and utilize a Residential Skill Assessment tool to measure and assess students’ skill competency in the various areas introduced.
Character Education
At Kolburne, building character is a key element of our mission. As a community, we all model character through our shared values and Six Character Pillars:
- Trustworthiness
- Respect
- Citizenship
- Caring
- Fairness
- Responsibility
Every month, the Kolburne community recognizes a different character pillar and everyone – from the staff to the students – works hard to model, be mindful of and discuss the actions and words that exemplify that character trait. Character units are celebrated at special assemblies, where students’ success is recognized, rewarded and applauded by the community.
Social Skills
Learning, appreciating and practicing the social skills needed to co-exist and work side-by-side with others out in the real world are an integral part of Kolburne’s Residential Program. Our Social Skills Curriculum emphasizes such social practices as good table manners, greeting others, family style dining, appropriate conversations, appropriate boundaries with others, community awareness, and exposure to daily life situations with strangers.
Behavior Management
The goal of Kolburne’s Positive Behavior Development System is to create an environment that supports the mission statement.
Kolburne embraces a system of levels and points to support the development and maintenance of positive and replacement behaviors through the use of privileges and token economy principles. Token economies are an effective method for changing behaviors, providing frequent positive reinforcement and tracking progress. The system encourages students to work with their strengths and improve their individual behaviors and skills, leading to a higher degree of independence.
Tokens are issued for reinforcing positive behaviors. Earned tokens are placed in the student’s “token bank,” and used to purchase certain activities such as trips, extra phone calls, dinner out, and extended bedtimes, as well as items from Kolburne’s Token Store.
Community Conference
How was your day? Any thoughts, concerns and/or issues? What target behavior would you like to work on this evening? These are the questions students address every day when they gather with their team and Milieu Instructors after school as they’re winding down from their day.
The daily Community Conference is an important and integral part of the Kolburne Curriculum and therapeutic milieu. It gives students the opportunity to talk about what’s on their minds with the support of their Team members, and provides an opportunity for them to focus on their target behaviors and reflect on how their actions for the day exemplified the Character Pillar of the month.
