Impact Story
Bridging Gaps: A Journey Of Reconnection And Growth
A teen girl’s struggle with school attendance and family conflict transforms into a tale of triumph at Kauffman House.
(Names are fictional to maintain confidentiality)
The Kauffman House Program Manager was excited to share a success story from 2023. A teen girl was struggling with attending school and having conflicts with her mom about attending school. Staff discovered that she had some anxiety about attending school and advocated with the school to ease into attending classes.
She continued to refuse to attend classes but slowly became more comfortable with attending school and would go for part of the day. The staff also continued to work on skills to help her communicate better, not only at school but with her mom as well. Everyone wanted to work to set up her return home to be as successful as possible. Before returning home, staff worked with the youth and mom on these skills and the motivation system that they had been using. Together they came up with a plan for when she returned home and a motivation system that would work for them both.
Learning during that meeting that the youth wanted more time with her mom, so they incorporated that in their motivation system. After discharge, staff reported that the youth had transitioned back home smoothly. She had improved her relationship with her mother, and was regularly attending school.