Our Teens

Thank you for helping us get the treatment that our daughter desperately needed. It may have not seemed like much but every penny helps! She seems to have actually taken a strong interest in the program at Solstice and we pray that this will assist her in making the life-altering changes that she needed.

SavingTeens in Crisis Collaborative (SavingTeens) is proud to announce another scholarship. Through the support of our collaborative partners we connected another family with appropriate support for their teen.

The young man was referred to SavingTeens through the sharply discounted support of Dr. Judi Bessette, an educational consultant and SavingTeens Advisory Board member. The fifteen year old is struggling with behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties. These include poor impulse control, defiance and anger, drug use, screen addictions, and poor relationships with both peers and family.

SavingTeens and Wingate Wilderness Therapy are supporting this family with a generous scholarship. Shayne Gallagher, Executive Director of Wingate, states, “”We at WinGate are happy that we are able to provide scholarships for those in need who couldn’t otherwise afford the services we offer. We appreciate the opportunity to do so in conjunction with SavingTeens.” Realizing that this family will need additional support for their child after his wilderness stay, this scholarship will allow the family to mete out their personal finances over the entire therapeutic process.

These collaborations allow SavingTeens to provide support to struggling families by combining scholarships from our partner programs with financial gifts from our donors. Because these funding efforts require a true community effort, we remain deeply thankful for the continued generosity of the therapeutic community and our donors.

SavingTeens in Crisis Collaborative (SavingTeens) is excited to announce another successful team effort to support a family in crisis. Incredible partnerships, caring professionals and generous donations make it possible for us to lead adolescents like these towards wellness.

The young woman was referred to SavingTeens through the pro-bono support of Shay Butts, an educational consultant and at the recommendation of SpringRidge Academy. The fifteen year old and her brother were adopted by their parents when she was seven. She continues to struggle with the trauma, abuse and neglect of her early life.

After an initial placement at SpringRidge Academy, it has been determined that this young woman will be best served at a Outdoor Behavioral Health facility. SavingTeens helped secure a generous scholarship to Second Nature Blue Ridge for this young woman. Upon completion of her program at Second Nature Blue Ridge, she will return to SpringRidge to continue her treatment. SavingTeens will be joining these two programs, who have offered significant discounts, and the pro-bono educational consultant by providing funds for this struggling family. It truly does take a village to help a child.

Devan Glissmeyer, Ph.D. Founder and Partner of Second Nature states, “Second Nature Therapeutic Programs and Second Nature Blue Ridge are pleased to support the mission of Saving Teens and this recent scholarship for a Blue Ridge student.”

SavingTeens remains deeply thankful for the continued generosity of the therapeutic community as supporting these families requires a true community effort.

SavingTeens in Crisis Collaborative (SavingTeens) is proud to announce our most recent scholarship. Through the support of collaborative partners and generous donations we were able to help another family find support for their teen.

The young woman was brought to the attention of SavingTeens through the pro-bono support of Robyn Egelson. The sixteen year old presented with a multitude of risky behaviors and a long history of therapeutic interventions. The family was desperate to secure funding for a long-term therapeutic care option for their child.

Solstice East has provided a generous scholarship for this family. Additionally the family, with Robyn’s assistance, has secured Department of Education funding. Taken together, and coupled with SavingTeens financial support, this partnership will make the plan affordable for the family.

Collaboration such as this enables SavingTeens to support struggling families. It takes a true community spirit to support families in crisis, and we continue to be incredibly thankful for the partnership of the therapeutic community and the generosity of our donors.

December 29, 2014 - SavingTeens is pleased to announce our first Thomas E. Bratter Scholar. Though a scholarship from John Dewey Academy (JDA) and the generous support of SavingTeens donors, we were able to help this young woman enroll at JDA and take the first step towards wellness that will lead to high school graduation and college matriculation.

Her aunt and uncle, who served as her guardians until she turned 18, took in the student, orphaned during high school. Struggling with adolescence and the death of her parents, she was rapidly traveling down the wrong path. After years of attempts to help her with more conventional (but ultimately unhelpful) interventions, her guardians reached out to SavingTeens for their support. Even with a generous scholarship awarded by JDA and continued generous support from her extended family, a gap remained. The SavingTeens’ Thomas E. Bratter Scholarship Fund was able to help close this gap.

In 2014, Saving Teens in Crisis Collaborative (SavingTeens) established the Thomas E. Bratter Scholarship Fund, a fund initially financed by a donation from a charitable organization formed by friends, family and alumni of the John Dewey Academy. The Bratter Scholarship Fund, administered by SavingTeens, focuses on supporting bright but troubled teens to attend top college preparatory therapeutic boarding schools with a strong emphasis on quality academics and a track record of sending their typical graduates to quality four year colleges.

To learn more about SavingTeens, or to donate the any of our funds, please visit: www.savingteens.org

SavingTeens in Crisis Collaborative (SavingTeens) has helped another family move from a wilderness program to a therapeutic boarding school. We could not have accomplished this without the dedication and generosity of our partners.
The young man has successfully completed his stay at Second Nature – Cascades and is now moving on to Ashcreek Academy in Utah. Through the continued pro-bono support of Dr. Judi Bessette of Compass Educational Consulting, the family negotiated successfully with their local school system to support their son in an out-of-system placement. Coupled with a very generous scholarship from Ashcreek Academy, this family continues to make progress.
SavingTeens collaborations allow us to offer support to troubled young people and their families. One of our most significant partnerships is with our donors. Without this support we could not continue to fund families. Treatment for troubled teens is cost prohibitive for all but the most well-to-do families, so every donation of dollars and services is crucial.

My son arrived at a small family style residential home at the start of June. This was on the heels of a little over 2 months in wilderness therapy. This therapeutic program is a family style environment which is a gift because that has been a huge challenge for my son. He’s never learned how to be part of a team, he barely functions in groups.

Going into a long term placement is giving my son the ability to have constant safe, loving supervision. He has daily therapy and group therapy and a safe consistent environment. He is learning to work on his interpersonal skills and learning anger management techniques. We have weekly family therapy sessions via Skype each week so we can work on our family dynamics and I can be updated on what’s happening with my son on a regular basis.

We have also established care with a psychiatrist who is working on lowering medications to the proper amount needed. The staff at the group home is going above and beyond to make sure we have a great plan and amazing communication.

I can’t even explain how grateful I am that we are a SavingTeens family. After years of unproductive family and personal therapy, increasing violence and then nearly weekly visits from the police to come calm my son down I ran out of hope. Finding SavingTeens has given me hope again, I never imagined finding a group who was committed not just to a fast treatment option but for a long term solution.

I had a nice visit with my son a few weeks ago, its been a long time since we had a nice time together. I look forward to more nice visits and an improved relationship and a child who is once again happy.

“First I would like to say “Thank You” from the bottom of my heart for saving my son, B. With the financial assistance and the emotional support that you gave me at SAVING TEENS, B. is able to complete the 12 month Residential Program at Building Bridges in Montana. Every morning when I wake up I thank the Lord for SAVINGS TEENS. Without SAVING TEENS and the program at Building Bridges, my son would have not received the help that he needed for his substance abuse, his lack of motivation, his poor academics and his low self-esteem. I know in my heart that B. is going to beat his addiction and is going to grow up to be a responsible young man because of your help.

“B. has been at Building Bridges since June 5, 2008. He completed the Wilderness Program on August 7, 2008. When I visited him after the completion of the Wilderness Program, he looked wonderful, healthy. He told me that he understood why I sent him there and that he accepted the help that was given to him. I could not believe the change in him, in 8 weeks. The Wilderness Program was just the beginning to B.’s recovery. Prior to B. being escorted to the program, he was out of control. He was not eating right, calling me everyday from school to pick him up because either his head hurt or his stomach hurt, not getting the proper sleep, bad grades and behavioral problems at home, all due to the drug addiction. I tried to get B. help locally, but the resources were very limited. I was determine to find the tools that B. needed to become a successful adult.

“B. has now been in the Residential Program for two months. He is working hard on his current Master Plan – drug addiction, image/self-worth, shyness and putting effort in his school work. He is playing JV Football at the local high school that he attends. He has a wonderful therapist, that he connected with and wonderful mentors at the program. B. now has the tools that he needs and the healing process has begun for both of us, all because of SAVING TEENS!”

“I wanted to send you an email so that I could give you an update on how K. is doing. It is hard to believe that we are talking about the same kid! I really thought that our child was lost to us, that we would never again see the wonderful boy that we had been blessed with. Each day for most of the past year was filled with fear and dread that we would receive a phone call from someone telling us that our son was dead. 



“We tried everything yet every avenue was wrought with frustration and failure. Nothing was working, no one had answers, and all we found were dead ends. Not only were we watching our son destroying himself, but our family as a whole was falling to pieces. For months my husband and I were consumed with despair. I broke down into sobs on an almost daily basis. It was truly the most difficult time of our lives. As a parent, how do you stand by and watch your child slowly kill himself and not be able to help? To live without hope is impossible.

“But then by the grace of God, we found Saving Teens in Crisis Collaborative. STICC provided us with nothing short of a miracle. Not only did STICC have answers, but they also had the financial muscle to make the answers viable for us. 



“Not to say that it wasn’t scary. One of the hardest things we have ever had to do was to hand our son over to strangers and trust that it would be ok. The day that K. left for wilderness was a gut wrenching day. I cried all morning. And yet, when we reached Utah and handed K. over to transporters for the wilderness camp, we were flooded with a sense of relief for the first time in months. In fact, for the first time in a long time, we had hope. K. would be ok and he would be safe! And after a few weeks of receiving letters from K. there was suddenly a shift in the tone of those letters; suddenly there were expressions of contriteness, accountability and love for his family. What joy!!



“When finally we were able to speak with K., it was incredible. I will never forget the first conversation. We spoke with our son, our K., who we had not seen a glimpse of for the longest time. Our child, who had disappeared, re-appeared. I can’t even begin to describe the elation that we felt! When I look back now, it is hard to understand how bleak things had become in our lives.



”K. continues to work hard (as does the family) at his school and continues to achieve and to amaze. It is wonderful to hear the pride in his voice over his accomplishments, as well as to hear of his dreams and ambitions (things he had not allowed himself to have before STICC gave him a way out), and even more importantly to hear the joy in his voice!

“We can’t thank you enough for all your hard work and more importantly for caring. Thank you for helping to return our son to us. Thank you for looking for a way out for families who are suffering. Thank you for founding STICC and affording families with hope, with answers, with solutions.

“STICC is truly a beacon in a dark, scary world. I really believe that without STICC K. would be lost to us forever. We hope and pray that STICC can continue to find support for the truly life saving work that it does so that other suffering families can also find a way to save their children and their families.



“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“I cannot say enough about the help that Saving Teens In Crisis has given to us. E. would have been put in the legal system, which would have been the worst thing that could have happened to him.

“E. is a boy with a severe ADHD problem and because of Saving Teens, he is getting the help he needs. We never could have been able to place E. at Aspen Ranch with out your help. He has an excellent therapist who understands E.’s problems and will be able to help him. E. needs a lot of help and thanks to Saving Teens, we are saving a teen.

“I cannot say enough about your organization, just the fact that someone out there cares about a teen they have never met. Just helping because he needs help. I cannot begin to thank you. I feel they are saving a life.”

Kim C., M.’s mother

To all who are a part of Saving Teens,

From deep in my soul, I want to thank you for your support to help my son, Michael, and our family receive the help we needed to fight the chains of addiction that have caused so much destruction and heartache. After being a homeless runaway and sitting in the juvenile detention center five different times, Michael had hit rock bottom. His substance abuse had hit a new level of desperation. He was using marijuana 20 or more times per day and was moving on to anything else that he could get his hands on. He was stealing anything and everything. The court system had decided to place him out of my care and he was looking at two years mandatory jail time at age 15. His life was over.

Saving Teens helped me be able to send him to WILDERNESS PROGRAM and avoid the court placement. It was a leap of faith for everyone involved. Michael’s life was saved. He worked harder than any boy they had seen at WILDERNESS PROGRAM for every day of the twelve weeks he spent there. They called him a legend! He rose to be a strong leader and really discovered what an amazing young man he is. Many times he has told me, “I don’t know who these people are or how you got this done, but I am so grateful and amazed that people care about me and I promise not to waste a day of it.”.

Through much hard work and persistence, Marilyn found a school that was willing to give a substantial discount and scholarship for Michael’s second phase of treatment. Saving Teens committed to the amount I needed to make this happen. Once again, people were taking a leap of faith. Michael has been at THERAPEUTIC SCHOOL now for seven weeks. He has continued his hard work. He is engaging academically for the first time in 6 years and is amazed at how smart he is. He has learned that with a clear mind and healthy body, he can do anything. I spoke with him yesterday and he told me to throw away his stereo because he had left some weed and lighters in there. He said, “I am so happy right now, that I don’t want anything to tempt me or mess this up in the future.”

He has been sober now for almost five months and is receiving the education and counseling to live a sober life and become a contributing member of society. I know there are many ups and downs ahead for us but I am so hopeful now. Michael is in the middle of my eight children. We were all paralyzed and not functioning at all in healthy ways. Now, the whole family is learning new healthier ways to function and grow. The results are truly amazing. Not only has Michael benefitted, but so has the entire family.

Thank you from our entire family!

Kim C

From deep in my soul, I want to thank you for your support to help my son, Michael, and our family receive the help we needed to fight the chains of addiction that have caused so much destruction and heartache. After being a homeless runaway and sitting in the juvenile detention center five different times, Michael had hit rock bottom. His substance abuse had hit a new level of desperation. He was using marijuana 20 or more times per day and was moving on to anything else that he could get his hands on. He was stealing anything and everything. The court system had decided to place him out of my care and he was looking at two years mandatory jail time at age 15. His life was over.