| Our Mission... |
| is to provide developmental, educational and economic opportunities for disadvantaged and troubled youth so that they may mature into responsible and successful adults. YDI is also a laboratory where effective practices in the field of child and youth care work can be documented, demonstrated and disseminated |
| Our Vision... |
| is of a therapeutic community, a village where children can find a place to belong and grow, where they can create identity through lasting relationships with caring adults, where they find a home for the heart and spirit, a place of healing and hope. |
Youth Development Institute (YDI) is a private, not-for-profit corporation that provides rehabilitation and treatment services for youth and their families. YDI was incorporated in Arizona of October of 1996 and first licensed by Arizona's Office of Behavioral Health Licensure (OBHL) for residential services in June of 1997. At a seven-acre campus located in central Phoenix we provide a full range of education, rehabilitation and intensive treatment services including academic programming, family, group and individual counseling, therapeutic recreation, living skills training and personal development. Overall, the program is highly structured, with supervised activities, groups or classes scheduled for every waking hour.
A Continuum of Care and Services
It is our belief and founding principal that a continuum of care is necessary to provide the best, most effective and most cost efficient model for the treatment of children and youth. We also believe that a true continuum of care requires a unified philosophy and approach, a well-correlated and thoroughly indoctrinated curriculum and methods, and perhaps most importantly, the consistency of caring adults. Our approach and goal is to transition youth from the more secure levels of care to the least restrictive (and less costly) levels of care while maintaining continuity of philosophy, programming and services.
YDI is a therapeutic community where each child can belong for as long as they may need services while being given hope for a future of successful independence. A place to belong, strong relationships with caring adults, and hope for the future form the basis of programming and services at YDI. We believe that it does indeed take a village to raise a child and that lasting relationships are central to the development of each child's full potential.
Our goal is that a child, once placed with YDI, can remain for as long as he or she needs out-of-home placement; our vision is to give each one a place to belong--a "village" in which they can create identity. We are equally committed to providing services to bridge successful transition back into the community at large, to bolster the family of origin or find a family of the heart for each.