Vista Maria

Last updated on June 28, 2011

Vista Maria is dedicated to healing girls and developing families for stronger communities. We are committed to be the provider of choice of unique, innovative and effective gender specific services for high-risk girls through a comprehensive continuum of care. Vista Maria offers a full range of highly specialized, secure residential programs designed specifically for girls.

Our Mission is to successfully transition high-risk girls into adulthood and assure their reintegration into the community by providing a continuum of care that:

• Fosters emotional healing
• Creates a safe and stable environment
• Improves family relationships
• Builds spiritual and moral development
• Increases personal competency & responsibility in

relationships, and

• Improves educational & vocational performance

Description:
Michigan's largest private, non-profit residential and community-based treatment agency for high-risk adolescent girls and their families. Vista Maria provides education, therapy, shelter and care to young women and their families who are struggling to cope with numerous challenges, including histories of abuse, neglect and other traumas. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd founded Vista Maria in 1883.

We have a variety of programs that suit a variety of needs:

 GRACE (Girls Recovering and Changing Everyday): New in 2001, GRACE is a medium-secure, specialty trauma recovery program designed to help adolescent girls cope with the trauma associated with severe abuse or neglect. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and other serious emotional conditions are therapeutically addressed. Girls in this program typically remain within the program for 10 months.

 Girls Care (Concern Accountability and Respect for Everyone): New in 2001 GIRLS CARE is a medium-secure, licensed treatment program for substance abuse and aggressive behavior. Staff are trained in the complexities of substance abuse treatment issues related to girls. A variety of treatment modalities are utilized to assist girls to overcome addictive and aggressive behaviors, remain substance free and celebrate life.

 S.C.U. (Special Care Unit): The Special Care Unit is a medium-secure program that helps adolescent girls successfully manage sub acute psychiatric conditions so they may continue normal growth and development. Girls in this program may be treated with psychotropic medications and be under the care of a psychiatrist. Therapeutic services are intensive and highly individualized.

 Unity Program: Unity is a medium-secure program that helps adolescent girls successfully manage severe sub acute psychiatric conditions so they may continue normal growth and development. Girls in this program may be treated with psychotropic medications and be under the care of a psychiatrist. Therapeutic services are intensive and highly individualized. Unity is a smaller, and more intensive program then our Special Care Unit.

 GSC (Good Shepherd Center): New in 2001, this is a short-term residential assessment program for pre-adjudicated adolescent girls. Youth referred are awaiting placement in an appropriate residential or community-based program.

 VISION : Vision is a short-term, open program that helps adolescent girls prepare to enter independent living, return to their family or transition to an alternate community placement. This program is for girls who may not have a reliable family support system to return to. When family reunification is possible, all efforts are focused toward this goal.

 Bridges: A program that offers short-term residential component, which is supported by long-term re-integration services. This program serves as a step-down unit from our mental health residential programs (Unity and SCU).

 SPECIALIZED FOSTER CARE: The Specialized Foster Care Program provides nurturing, caring homes for girls who have never experiences a healthy family life. The program accepts girls between the ages of 6 and 17, many of whom have already been in several foster homes or placements. The program strives to provide emotional support and guidance and to stabilize their lives. The program also includes support services.

Though a very different agency than that in 1883, Vista Maria still operates under the philosophy that 'One person is of greater value than a world.' Vista Maria helps more than 1,000 girls and their families annually.

In addition to our residential and treatment programs, Vista Maria also provides programs designed to enrich our residents on a personal, academic and social level. These programs include:

 YAP (Youth Assistance Program): The Youth Assistance Program is a 16-week course for Dearborn Heights adolescents and their families who are struggling with at-risk behaviors. The program offers youth weekly discussion and education on a range of topics including self-esteem, conflict resolution, anger management, goal setting and drug use prevention. Parent participation is required.

 Vista Maria's Mentorship Program: A program that pairs adult, female volunteer mentors with young women from a Vista Maria treatment program. These young women are assisted in building self-esteem and gaining knowledge of community resources.

 Partners in Education: A program that pairs community volunteers and residents to provide after-school tutoring and academic help. Vista Maria pairs with the school, as well as local business to promote educational learning.



History:
Vista Maria is Michigan's largest private, non-profit residential and community-based treatment agency for high-risk adolescent girls and their families, a service agency organized by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which historically originated in France.

In 1835, St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier founded the order Sisters of Good Shepherd in Angers, France primarily to help women and girls in emotional, social and spiritual distress. Mother Euphrasia established the philosophy that "One person is of greater value than a world¨ as a guide for those assisting children with special needs.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrived in the United States in 1842 and established their first house in Louisville, Kentucky. It was soon evident that the Sisters' important service was needed in many other areas of the country.

In the late 1800s, the rapid growth of industrialization and urbanization in Detroit, Michigan was accompanied by an increase in population, increase in poverty and an increased number of children, who were orphaned and destitute. Hearing of the Sisters' devotion to helping children, Bishop Caspar Henry Borgess contacted the St. Louis Province of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and appealed to them to help in Detroit.

In the fall of 1883, five Sisters arrived in Detroit and moved into their selected site, the former Beer Brock Ward Mansion on Fort Street near St. Anne's Church. They renamed the mansion the "House of the Good Shepherd.¨ The first girl to request the Sisters' care was "Josephine? who arrived on their doorstep the day after they moved in.

The number of women and girls that sought the Sisters' help was so great during the early days in Detroit that it was soon necessary to build several residential buildings, a convent, a power house and laundry facilities. By the turn of the century, 33 Sisters were caring for more than 200 young women on the premises.

Throughout the next 30 years, the House of the Good Shepherd continued to expand its services and children served. By the late 1930s, it became evident that the Fort Street property was not large enough to accommodate all of the young women who requested the Sisters' help. Fortunately, Archbishop Edward Mooney pleaded the need for new buildings to the City of Detroit on behalf of the Sisters.

Soon thereafter, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, together with the Salvation Army, organized a joint fund-raising campaign called the "Open Your Heart Fund" and successfully raised enough money to construct the new buildings. However, the Sisters needed a site on which to build.

Henry and Clara B. Ford heard of the Sisters' predicament and offered a very generous gift of 50 acres of land on West Warren Avenue across from Rouge Park. The Sisters purchased the property from Mr. and Mrs. Ford for One Dollar and immediately began taking steps to construct the residential buildings, a school, a power house and an auditorium/gymnasium. The first shovelful of earth was turned on August 5, 1941.

On December 8, 1942, the first Mass was celebrated in the chapel on the new site in Dearborn Heights. The House of the Good Shepherd was officially reopened with a new name, Vista Maria.

From 1942 to the mid-1970s, the Sisters assisted thousands of young women with various and several problems. Throughout those years, the girls lived in an environment similar to today's Vision Program. They attended school, participated in activities (both on campus and in the community) and attended religious services.

In the early 1970s, laypersons assumed a greater role in the Agency's activities and eventually were added to the Board of Directors. Throughout those years, renovation projects were completed on both the interiors and exteriors of the residential halls.

The year of 1976 was a time of crisis for Vista Maria due to severely low enrollment. It was during this period that the Sisters began to implement changes in the programs and services offered by the Agency to better meet the needs of the community. These changes resulted in the development of the three distinct residential treatment programs:

VIP (Vista's Interim Placement): Emergency shelter for abused and neglected girls.

Vista: Short-term residential program that prepares girls for independent living and/or foster care.

VITA: Residential program for girls with moderate maladaptive behaviors.

The 1980s and 1990s were years of continued growth and change for the Agency and several additional programs were added. Today, our mission is to provide abused and neglected girls with the emotional, educational, psychological and spiritual guidance they need in order to become productive, contributing members of society. We have a variety of programs that suit a variety of needs.



Contact person: Wendy Kearney, Program Manager Of Volunteer Resources, (313) 271-3050 ext. 114, (email)


Office fax number: (313) 271-5967

Address:


20651 W. Warren Dearborn Heights, MI 48127 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.vistamaria.org

Last updated on June 28, 2011