The i-HOPE Experience encompasses the youth’s involvement with Youth Opportunity. It is our treatment model. Everything we do– every process, every treatment service, every relationship we forge is guided toward instilling in our youth the essential ingredient for success: HOPE. Without hope for the future any efforts of rehabilitation are fruitless. With hope, anything is possible, limitations fade, and clarity and ambition replace uncertainty and apathy.
Toward that end, Youth Opportunity ensures we 1) provide innovative solutions, 2) deliver evidence-based proven and best practice treatment, education, and vocational services, based on individualized, youth-focused strengths and needs, 3) provide a safe environment under the tenets of trauma-informed care, 4) model prosocial behavior and social skills, 5) maintain a focus on health and wellness, and 6) incentivize continual progress and development. The i-HOPE Experience is fully integrated, and leads to Healthy Opportunity for Progress and Empowerment (HOPE):
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integrated
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Healthy
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Opportunity for
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Progress &
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Empowerment
To actualize those ideals, Youth Opportunity has developed, through decades of experience and rigorous review of research, our i-Choose System of behavior motivation, the TLC employee recognition and retention program to secure and retain the most qualified staff to serve youth, and our Premier GOLD Innovations compliance and program performance evaluation process, which meticulously drives continuous improvement. These Investing in Excellence components operate synergistically.
The i-Choose System is focused on modeling, coaching, and incentivizing prosocial healthy behaviors. Youth are incentivized through earning credits through the demonstration of healthy, on-task behaviors throughout a structured daily agenda. Basic hygiene and wellness-related tasks are incentivized, as are educational, vocational, and treatment participation, and prosocial, healthy interaction with peers and staff. Expectations are increased as youth progress through the program,
building on past successes to drive future performance; starting with an external process of explanation and verbal prompts, culminating in youth both internalizing expectations and mentoring newer admissions. Healthy, prosocial behavior is motivated through daily, weekly, and monthly incentives for youth that meet expectations. Youth engagement and voice is encouraged through a youth advisory board, which assists with developing an incentive calendar, choosing items available for exchange of earned credits, discussing any youth concerns, and supporting new program initiatives.
Teamwork Leadership Culture
We understand the success of our youth, and of Youth Opportunity itself, is dependent on the quality of our employees and the training and tools we equip them with to optimize performance. As such, we have developed an employee recognition and retention program designed to enhance employee morale and retention and build and maintain a best-in-class employee culture, conducive to providing effective service delivery to our youth. Our multidimensional employee recognition program recognizes employees for their contribution to the company, high level performance, and creating a positive culture through Investing in Excellence through Teamwork, Leadership, and Culture, or TLC.
Additionally, Youth Opportunity provides a quarterly Facility Performance Evaluation award based on quality improvement site visits which include verification of:
Service delivery,
Health services,
Treatment services,
Living environment,
Fiscal and Human Resources data, and
Communication and Satisfaction surveys.
Based on this outcome data, each program is ranked, and the highest-ranking program is recognized with an Investing in Excellence trophy plus a monetary award to be used as staff recognition. This process has set up strong healthy competition amongst our programs to win the trophy!
Teamwork, Leadership, and Culture, what we term TLC, has been systematically defined and elucidated in program expectations. To achieve the employee, and hence program, culture necessary for service delivery in line with Youth Opportunity values, we have developed expectations encompassing our systems, staffing, program environments, and communication strategies.
Finally, in achieving our vision of Investing in Excellence, we are dedicated to the concepts of Compliance & Fidelity Monitoring, and
Continuous Quality Improvement.
Youth Opportunity has developed the Premier GOLD Innovations compliance and program performance evaluation process to ensure both oversight of compliance to Youth Opportunity standards and expectations, contractual obligations, rules, and regulations, as well as systemic drive toward continual improvement and innovation. The Premier GOLD Innovations process is outcome-focused, producing monthly and quarterly key performance indicator (KPI) reporting across the following dimensions:
General (census, admissions, discharges),
Service Delivery (individual, family, group services),
Investing in Excellence (management accountability, safety and security, health services, treatment services, living environment, case management),
Fiscal/Human Resources (turnover, retention, overtime, call offs, corrective action, worker’s comp),
Order/Safety (incidents, escapes, absconds, restraints, seclusion/controlled observation),
Communication (advisory boards, family support, staff meetings, timely reporting), and
Satisfaction (youth surveys, family surveys, staff surveys).
Youth Opportunity has advanced Investing in Excellence as our guiding inspiration. This conviction of distinct systems and processes governs how we serve youth, the way in which we recognize staff, and the process by which we ensure we remain steadfast in the continuous pursuit of innovation and success.
Youth Opportunity is driven by our inspiration of Investing in Excellence. It is the umbrella under which everything unites. "Investing in Excellence" guides our treatment model with youth, our employee incentive and retention efforts, and our continuous quality improvement process that ensures overall fidelity.
These components, integrated under "Investing in Excellence", are:
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The i-HOPE Experience Treatment Model
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The i-Choose System of Behavior Motivation
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The TLC: Teamwork, Leadership, Culture employee recognition and retention program
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The Premier GOLD Innovations compliance and program performance evaluation process