Therapeutic Boarding School in Utah for Troubled Girls

La Europa Academy, Salt Lake City:
Located in Murray, in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah, La Europa Academy provides individualized residential treatment for girls ages 13-17. Through a solid integration of therapeutic, academic, and environmental interventions, we help adolescent girls and their families to find their greatness again.

Our typical girl would be described as very bright and talented. She may have an interest and talent in Fine Arts such as painting, ceramics, photography, music or dance.

She may also have great interest and ability in writing, math, science, literature, or language. However, she tends to be a girl whose emotional and/or behavioral issues have conflicted with her being able to succeed in the areas in which she has great gifts.

While academic performance tends to range greatly with our students, their ability level certainly has them as college bound material. For some, this may require a lot of work, as they have begun taking a downward spiral in classroom performance or may struggle to comply with academic rigors in mainstream schools.

For others, they have managed to maintain strong grade point averages and might need help to push themselves to more engaged learning experiences. The La Europa student struggles with core issues such as hurt, pain, or fear. These core issues may result from a variety of different types of past and current experiences. Core issues may also display themselves in a variety of different types of behaviors.

The La Europa student is more likely to find coping strategies to relieve her pain in the short term, while punishing herself in the long run. This makes her clinically complex and she may no longer be benefiting from outpatient therapy.

* Depression or Bipolar symptoms
* Anxiety
* Eating Disorders
* Cutting/Self-Mutilation
* Sexual Reactivity
* Drugs/Alcohol
* Relationship difficulties–Often getting too close too fast or having a tough time making friends at all
* Excessive anger or frustration
* Family Conflict
* Defiance to rules or authority figures
* School failure
* Trauma
* Self-esteem issues
* Chameleon behaviors (may act differently based on whoever she is hanging around)–Tries to adapt or fit based on what others want/expect from her. Tends lo lack her own identity.

Our girls are more likely to be kind to others while treating themselves poorly. Our girls struggle with self worth, feeling loveable, and worrying that they have let the family down. These intense feelings tend to be what she is hiding. We believe this is the root or core of her intensifying and escalating behaviors.

At La Europa, we believe two very key things.

We believe in our girls and their families:
We work with remarkable people. At times, troubling and often self-defeating behaviors, as well as serious emotional struggles can overshadow the tremendous qualities in any of us.

For adolescent girls, this can affect every area of their lives, causing sadness, anger, fear, and disappointment for them as well as for their parents and loved ones. Underneath all of this, though, we honor the greatness within all of the girls we have the privilege of working with.

We believe in change:
We believe that families and individuals can and do change when given the right opportunities. By building on the tremendous qualities that are already there, we help each young woman and her family to improve their lives and rebuild their relationships.

La Europa is child-focused rather than curriculum-focused. A broad enrichment program of art, science, Foreign Language, dance and multi-media give our students opportunities for success that empower them to succeed elsewhere.

Teachers are carefully selected based on their expertise and love for what they teach. Most importantly, the program is a place where students feel loved and respected, based on our belief that a child that feels loved will eagerly want to learn and will feel self-confident in doing so. La Europa programs are offered in a supportive and stimulating environment dedicated to:

* Helping students develop high-level thinking skills so that the process of learning applies to all aspects of life outside school
* Establishing a well-balanced environment that nurtures positive self-esteem
* Providing a climate that stimulates creativity and is supportive of the unique qualities of each child
* Making teachers and students accountable for the mastery of basic academic skills
* Creating a democratic environment that promotes respect for others

This child-focused, principle-centered approach to teaching children allows La Europa to rekindle a love of learning in students that frequently struggle in traditional academic settings.

- Individual and Family Therapy
- Group Therapy
- Arbinger Workshop
- Sand Tray Therapy
- Recreational Therapy
- Psychiatry
- Yoga

Academic Program:
- College Prep Program including English, Social Studies, Math and Science; Broad Enrichment Program of art, science, Foreign Language, dance and multi-media.

La Europa Faculty Provide:

* Positive role modeling and supportive assistance to the students’ emotional, intellectual, physical and social needs.
* A student-focused curriculum geared toward allowing each student to meet her individual academic potential.
* A partnership with therapeutic professionals to integrate the emotional and academic learning of students.
* Classroom instruction for grades 9 – 12 with an average class size of 8 students.
* A student course load grade-specific of English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Spanish or other academic elective, Fine Art (Art, Photography, Dance, or Film Making) and Physical Education.
* College-preparatory courses with high academic standards based on the Utah State Core Curriculum.
* Services and accommodations for students with learning differences.
* An opportunity to make-up credit and/or review missing academic concepts.
* Educators that are professionally licensed and carefully selected based on their expertise and love for what they teach.
* Educators committed to continual improvement of skills through participating in teaching observations, setting and achieving educational goals, and attending training in the areas of new educational methods and mental health.
* A comprehensive guidance program including: appropriate course placement for grade-level advancement, SAT/ACT scheduling and preparation, recommendations for appropriate educational placement after La Europa and assistance through the process of applying for college.

In addition to classroom instruction and scheduling based on the courses needed for each student, the La Europa education department provides a great deal of student supports. We desire to help students to learn more effectively and to find ways to be successful in school. There are a number of ways that we encourage this.

Positive Behavior Support:
All of the teachers at La Europa Academy are dedicated to fostering a positive, safe, and supportive learning environment. Each week La Europa Academy faculty highlight one student that has made extra effort that week in school with the student of the week program. This student is given a certificate, a choice of ice cream from Cold Stone, and a positive parent letter is sent home.

Academic Probation:
Academic Probation is a supportive disciplinary tool used to help student how are falling behind in school. Any student that falls 2 or more assignments behind or drops below a 70% in any class is put on Academic Probation. While a student is on Academic Probation they have restricted privileges in the evenings allowing them extra time to completing missing assignments, extra credit, or redo poorly done work.

Study Skills Class:
The study skills program was developed to help support students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and school anxiety. A certified special education teacher leads this class and implements the curriculum. Many of these students have IEP’s from home school districts are implemented at La Europa Academy.

Home Passes:
It is an important part of the therapeutic and education process to have students practice being at home with their parents. This does, however, mean that at times students so miss school at La Europa Academy. In order to support this process, students complete the home pass homework form before they leave on a home visit.

Individualized Tutoring:
During the lunch free time period teachers are available to La Europa Academy student for personal tutoring. Teacher can work one on one with students during this time to enrich skills, re-teach concepts, or complete independent study material.

Master Education Plans:
When a student admits to La Europa Academy, a Master Education Plan is completed within a month. This plan is correlated with the student therapeutic, residential, and nursing plan. All of these plans are aligned around 3 to 5 specific areas of concern.

Learning Technics:
The Learning Technics program is a company that La Europa Academy contract with to help support and enhance a student’s ability to learn. Through a variety of exercises Learning Technics student learn to better learn new material and better access previously learned material.

As the day winds down from school, the work at La Europa Academy is just getting going. Each evening is filled with activities and events designed to help the students develop relationships and exercise their skills and emotional growth.

* Recreation Night
Every week, one student takes responsibility for planning a fun off-campus activity for her community. Some recent popular activities include roller skating, dollar movies, and a local arcade.

* Service/Culture Night
One night a week our students either participate in a service project or local cultural activity (the opera, plays, symphony/musical events, dance productions/classes, art exhibits, etc.). In the past La Europa has attended the off-Broadway production of Les Miserables, Ballet West’s production of Swan Lake, Utah Opera’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet, and Utah’s award winning Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City.

* Craft Night
Accessing their creative energies, La Europa students make blankets, holiday crafts, paint, scrapbook, learn to knit and crochet, and make beaded handicrafts.

* Movie/Pizza Night
On Saturday evenings, our students agree (after some discussion) upon a movie to rent and then order-in pizza. All movies are approved through staff for appropriate content. Rated R movies are not allowed.

* Rec. Center
Students visit a local recreation center once a week to swim, play basketball, strength train, and exercise.