Our Mission

Our mission at Hillcrest Educational Centers is to facilitate the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth of our students through the development of new skills that will enable them to succeed in their home community.

The success we have experienced over the last two decades, in making this mission a reality, is due to the over 500 Hillcrest staff members who are unequaled in their commitment and performance. As we strive to develop skills with our students that will prepare them for the world beyond Hillcrest, we have come to rely on our local community to continue to provide opportunities and great support for our programs.

It is with confidence that we envision the future. As we broaden the scope of our innovative treatment programs, which will provide more comprehensive treatment options for our students, we do so secure in the knowledge that Hillcrest Educational Centers has become one of the finest treatment and special education facilities in the country. We say this proudly, not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the children who are, after all, our reason for being and who deserve nothing less than the best.

Guiding Principles:

• Every student has the potential to succeed in life
• Every member of the Hillcrest community (students, families, and employees) is entitled to unconditional respect
• Every student is entitled to individualized treatment and education
• Students need our services because they have lacked the skills, resources, or support required to cope with their environments
• Families are an integral part of our students’ success
• We are committed to assuring that our students reach their full academic potential
• We are committed to continuous improvement and learning
• We are committed to fiscal responsibility
• We are committed to teamwork
• We are committed to excellence

All of our treatment interventions are designed to provide trauma informed treatment to youth and their families. Through the lens of trauma informed care, we utilize the Skills for Life treatment model and Applied Behavioral Analysis model.
Skills for Life (SFL)
Skills for Life (SFL) is a strength-based, comprehensive treatment model designed by Hillcrest Educational Centers for the purpose of providing trauma informed care to the students served by our treatment programs. This model has been developed through an extensive process of training, research and consultation, and trial and error. It is a model that utilizes best practices and evidence-based practices in the field of trauma informed care. Additionally, the model utilizes what we have identified as our own best practices. These practices have been identified through a long history of treating children with a myriad of complex presenting problems, children who have had life experiences such as trauma, losses, life disruptions, learning impairments, and developmental delays.

The following provides concepts and interventions we utilize, and the connected practices:
1) HEC strives to utilize best practices for residential treatment, and utilizes the works and findings of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). BBI promotes youth voice & choice, youth driven, and family guided practices. In doing so, BBI offers practices that support reduced length of stay and promote reunification and permanency. See buildingbridges4youth.org.
2) HEC incorporates Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills throughout all parts of programming, including weekly DBT skills group therapy, use of DBT skills in treatment planning, individual and family therapy, subsequent skill coaching by milieu staff. DBT boasts a long history of successful treatment outcomes. See behaviortech.org.
3) Hillcrest has committed to training staff in all departments in the use of Collaborative Problem Solving’s (CPS) approach to teaching youth skills through approaches aimed at honoring the youth’s perspective on the problem, exploring alternate solutions, and building lagging skills that contribute to behavioral problems. See thinkkids.org.
4) Based on outcome evidence for Dr. Ricky Greenwald’s trauma treatment model, HEC trains its clinical staff in his therapy model and incorporates interventions in Skills for Life that reflect the language and treatment steps utilized in his model. See childtrauma.com/research.
5) Hillcrest utilizes Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (see other sections for rigorous training requirements of all staff). Developed by Cornell University, there is rich evidence that this model offers successful interventions that reduce and eliminate dangerous behaviors through key verbal interventions and a deep understanding of the impact of trauma as well as the conflict cycle. See http://rccp.cornell.edu.

Applied Behavior Analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis is a research based treatment method that has been proven to be effective in treating the difficulties associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The methods employed in this model rely on data collection procedures to prove that the methods employed are responsible for the positive changes that occur in student behavior. The focus will be on socially significant behaviors such as acquiring news skills and decreasing challenging maladaptive behaviors. The purpose of these behavioral changes is to improve the overall quality of life for that individual. Clinical services are provided by individuals licensed and certified in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Hillcrest Educational Centers was founded on the belief that our students are unique individuals with specific needs. Accordingly, the residential and educational programming we offer is tailored to help students deal with the trauma that has affected their lives and to enable students to both reach and use their true potential.

Students are referred to Hillcrest Educational Centers when their behavior is severely problematic, self-defeating, and, sometimes dangerous to themselves and/or others. Therefore, our students require residential treatment in order to develop and learn to use self-control, to change their behavior, and to grow psychologically and emotionally. HEC’s goal is to facilitate the social, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual growth of our students so that they will be able to do well in less restrictive settings and eventually return to their communities.

Our treatment approach is interdisciplinary. This means that we offer each student an individualized care and treatment plan and services provided by a combination of qualified professional and paraprofessional staff who are trained in the various approaches and skills required for that student’s individual development and unique needs. These disciplines and approaches include: clinical and medical; counseling and therapy; special education; speech, language and hearing; occupational therapy; physical therapy; recreation; and residential.

Services are delivered at HEC through a team model. Educators, psychologists, clinicians, nurses, physicians, therapists and other specialists all work together with the youth development staff as treatment teams to serve a specific group of students who are assigned to that team. The teams take a pro-active approach to helping the student acquire new skills, enhance existing skills and strengths, and change their problem behavior patterns. The primary focus of our treatment is to enhance the quality of our students’ lives, both in the present at Hillcrest and in the future as members of society.

You’ll note that we refer to the children we serve as “students”. At Hillcrest Educational Centers, we believe that all people can change, grow, and learn. In that sense, we believe that we are all learners and we are all students. We learn, from our work with our students, how to be better teachers and helpers, and sometimes, from the courage that our students show as they struggle to learn and grow, we learn about how to be courageous in a world that is too often cruel and exceedingly difficult.

We call the children students because at their Hillcrest program each student can and will learn. They will learn new ways of thinking, feeling and acting; new ways to get along with others; new ways to get their needs met; new ways of succeeding in the world.