Girls Services
Articles of Interest
Calendar
CARE Program Brochure
Center For Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education Toll free Hotline: 1-888-568-8332
CYL Alerts
DCF Policy for Girls Services
Documentary - Girl Rising
Girls Provider Network Members
Educational Resources for Providers of Services for Girls
Law Enforcement Partners
National Public Awareness and Events and Resources
Poster - Free Trafficking Posters
Program Guidelines
Programs and Services ailored to meet the needs of girls from ethnic and linguistic minority groups
Self Assessment Tools
State of Connecticut Network of Care for Sexual Assault Counseling
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A New Path Appears (PBS Film)
History of the Latina A.R.M.Y., Inc.
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Operation Cross Country
Nice weather means one thing
Take Back Beauty Day
Freeze Norwalk
Garment Workers
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DCF Policy for Girls Services: The Girls' Program Guidelines provided by the Department of Children and Families are the basis of the therapeutic model for all providers of girls services in the state of Connecticut and must be used to guide programming decisions.
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CARE Program at CJR Description
Children of the Night(www.childrenofthenight.org) -- is a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 and dedicated to helping victims of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. Operates a national 24-hour shelter home for victims of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.
ITVS Community Classroom (www.itvs.org/educators) -- visit this website for information about the ITVS Community Classroom an exciting resource for educators and youth serving organizations, providing award-winning documentary film content with in-depth lesson plans. Collections feature film modules excerpted from the Emmy-award winning PBS Series Independent Lens, and curricula is standards-aligned for use in high school and college settings. Resources are available FREE online at itvs.org/educators. Through its Women and Girls Lead project, providers may gain access to the film series on relevant topics such as, "Women & Girls in the Criminal Justice System, African American Women Leaders, and Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and more.
Love146 (www.love146.org) -- is an international organization that works toward the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through prevention and aftercare.
National Crittenden Foundation (www.nationalcrittenton.org ) --The National Crittenden Foundation and its family of agencies support girls, young women, and their families overcome major obstacles rooted in circumstances not of their own making. Through no fault of their own, the majority of these girls and young women have experienced child sexual, physical and emotional abuse or persistent neglect.
Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org) -- operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline and The National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The Polaris Project also provides referrals, resources, general information and training and technical assistance related to human trafficking.
Teens on Trafficking (www.teensontrafficking.org) -- is a website created by teens. Features links to many videos about and against human trafficking, also descriptions about projects teens have done to spread the word about the problem and risks of human trafficking, also an interactive question answer blog.
Shared Hope International (www.sharedhope.org) -- is a faith based organization dedicated to preventing and eradicating sex trafficking and slavery through education and public awareness.
Rebecca Project for Human Rights (www.rebeccaproject.org) -- The Rebecca Project for Human Rights provides up-to-date research and policy resources for the public, policy makers, administrators, journalists and others who want to learn more about the issues vulnerable families face. Their website provides fact sheets, white papers, reports and directories of services.
National Day of the Girl (www.dayofthegirl.org) -- This successful campaign to establish the National Day of the Girl was led in the US by School Girls Unite, an organization of students and young women leaders determined to advance the UN Millennium Development Goals related to gender equality and universal basic education, and other human rights issues. The Day of the Girl's mission mirrors the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the International Day of the Girl Child, approved on December 19, 2011: “To help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.”
Network of Care is a database for community services. This version of the Network of Care, recognized as a model program by the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, provides vital information to help link consumers to support groups and personal advocacy resources in the community. The site also provides a repository of evidence-based practices – successful, creative ways for communities to respond to their behavioral-health needs. To locate resources in Connecticut, click on Behavioral Health, then select "Connecticut". You may then search for specific programs in Connecticut via various search routes including key word (e.g. girls, teen pregnancy, mentoring, substance abuse, Hispanic Services…). The site provides specific instructions for how to search and locate services in your specific community of interest.
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Calendar:
CCSU Women's Athletic Events
Western Connecticut Calendar
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Center For Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling And Education -- Crisis intervention and short-term counseling for victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault. Bilingual counseling services are available to the Hispanic/Latino community and for families, friends, and partners:700 Canal Street, Suite 22B Stamford, CT 06902. Toll free Hotline: 1-888-568-8332; Hotline 203-329-2929
State of Connecticut Network of Care for Sexual Assault Counseling
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Girls Provider Network Members
Community Life Skills
Journey House Program
NAFI Touchstone
Options Educational Services
Woodbridge House
Community Life Skills
for Girls is a program that is open to young women aged 12-19 years old who wish to learn how to enrich their lives and gain new life skills. The core part of this program focuses heavily on supporting young women’s self expression within a safe, caring environment to encourage self confidence and enhanced judgment. The program provides exciting groups and classes such as Youth People Empowering People, Girl’s Circle, Voices, ZUMBA, and much more.
Journey House Program
at Natchaug Hospital, Inc. is a secured residential treatment program that serves juvenile justice involved adolescent girls for the State of Connecticut. The residents remain involved in treatment at the program for approximately six to nine months, depending on treatment needs and discharge plans. Our population of residents in addition to being legally involved, typically also have a variety of mental health diagnoses which have included:
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Mood Disorders
Conduct Disorder
Learning Disorders
NAFI Touchstone
NAFI is located on 55 acres of land in Litchfield, Connecticut. This expansive campus offers two residential dormitory settings, an on-campus school, low-ropes course as well a dirt bike program curriculum. Touchstone is a staff-secure residential treatment program serving girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who are committed to the Department of Children and Families. With enhanced psychiatric, nursing, educational and clinical expertise, Touchstone provides young women the opportunity to engage in treatment in the community with the goal of future placement either in the home or at a lower level of care.
Gender-responsive programming assists the girls with complex needs including:
Self-esteem
Trauma
Substance abuse
Self-injury
Sexual Education
Life Skills
Anger expression
Healthy relationship development
The young women have the opportunity to build a trusting one-on-one relationship with an advocate counselor, and aftercare services are provided. The educational program at Touchstone prides itself on bringing out the talents of each young woman in order to make their educational experience a success, including a culinary program. The program is specifically designed to meet the needs of adolescent girls through:
Individual and group counseling
Family therapy
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Education and credit retrieval
A gender responsive approach
Trauma informed treatment approach
Permanency planning and transitional supports
Touchstone provides skills training in an emotionally safe environment for young women. Touchstone offers a trauma informed care to support young women in developing emotion regulation skills and independent living skills in order to have a successful transition to their home communities.
Options Educational Services
This program is located at: 606 Farmington Avenue Hartford, CT 06105, for ages: 14 through 21 years. Options Educational Services (Options) provides educational and vocational services for students ages 14-21 who have not been successful in the public school setting and/or in other therapeutic private placements.
The mission of the Options special education program is to improve each student’s academic skills and competitive abilities for independent living, post-secondary education and employment. This is accomplished through providing highly individualized programs within a therapeutic setting.
The goal of the Options special education program is to support each student’s completion of high school graduation requirements and to prepare them for post-secondary activities. Education, transition and vocational programs are developed in conjunction with IEPs and are commensurate with the SDE Connecticut Curriculum Frameworks.
Options accepts referrals for day students from LEAs.
Education Director: Rosemary Jakobsen
Telephone Number: 860-523-5318
E-mail Address: rjakobsen@optionsct.com
Chief Administrator: Scott Wells, MA
Telephone Number: 860-523-5318
E-mail Address: swells@optionsct.com
Fax Number: 860-232-3597
Woodbridge House
We partner with youth and their families to build on their strengths, and create interventions and service plans that are strength-based, individualized, family-centered, and culturally appropriate, utilizing the youth and family’s natural resources.
Woodbridge House is a 6 bed therapeutic group home for girls aged 13-18 who are involved with DCF and/or the juvenile justice system and need a residential program to assist them with trauma and complex behavioral issues including co-occurring disorders. This is a community based program located in a suburban setting. The program will address the multi-faceted needs of these complex adolescents with a goal of discharge into their family of origin, relative, or foster family with community based treatment and support.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the primary treatment model. DBT is a comprehensive psychosocial treatment that is effective for clients with multiple and serious issues including complex trauma. It combines standard cognitive behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and
mindfulness. DBT is an effective treatment for extreme emotions which lead to impulsive self-destructive behaviors.
It focuses on teaching and practicing Mindfulness Skills, Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills, Emotion Regulations Skills, and Distress Tolerance Skills. Clinical Treatment Model Approach to service planning including aftercare. We integrate wraparound competencies including:
Understanding and valuing meaningful involvement of family and youth as equal partners.
Engaging the family, emphasizing their strengths and instilling hope and confidence.
Engaging culturally relevant, individualized, community based Child and Family Team.
This program uses the CARE (Children and Residential Experiences) Creating Conditions for Change practice model, created by Cornell University’s Residential Child Care Project. CARE helps us improve the youth’s level of functioning and build skills necessary for them to transition into a family successfully and permanently. The principles of CARE are:
Developmentally Focused
Family Involved
Relationship Based
Competence Centered
Trauma Informed
Ecologically Oriented
Call toll free 1.877.884.3571 or visit www.chrhealth.org. Woodbridge Fact Sheet