Description of Youth Considered for Admission

Age and Gender:
Females, ages 12 - 18 (younger ages considered if part of a sibling group in which older youth is place at Elks Aidmore). In the Preparation for Independent Living Program residents may be 21 years of age.

Favorable Criteria:
Status offenders, youth who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, andlor abandonment; of average intelligence and able to function in a public school setting without requiring self-contained classroom instruction; the availability of adequate funding to meet the youth's physical, emotional, and educational needs, a strong family/custodian support for the placement and commitment to professional partnership in the resolution of the presenting problem(s).

Unfavorable Criteria:
Chemically dependent individuals, those who have exhibited aggressive or dangerous behaviors to self or others (needing 24-hour, secure supervision); individuals with histories of dangerous crimes (arson, assault, weapons charges, etc.); severely developmentally delayed and/or neurological impaired youth, individuals expressing active suicidal ideations, youth who have not been stabilized in psychotropic medications (60 days or more) or on medications which cannot be safely administered and monitored by cottage staff, those diseased to the point of endangering other residents and/or staff. It is the policy of the Center that no resident shall be allowed to smoke or use any other tobacco products.