Family Program

The SUWS Youth Program believes that a child's growth and healing is often best supported by the inclusion of the family in the counseling process. Therefore, the final phase of the program includes a two-day workshop in which parent and child come together to begin establishing grounds for future communication. This experience provides a forum in which both parents and students can practice skills and tools they have acquired throughout the program, while still under the supervision of a trained counselor.

Following a half-day parenting seminar with a child's counselor, parents enter the field for a one night camping experience with the student group. Through a series of initiatives and exercises, students and parents begin creating positive patterns of relating to one another, healing old wounds, and learning effective models of communication. Families come together in a manner that facilitates mutual respect, individual affirmation, and provides for a stronger, more satisfying parent-child relationship. The one-night parent solo creates an intimate setting for families to reconnect and set positive goals for the future.

Parents are benefited in three primary ways: