Children’s Village works with each young person, foster parent and child caring agency, as partners, in discovering the unique strengths and struggles of the specific children in care who are preparing for their adult lives.   We want to fill the gaps of service that inevitably occur so that the young people can develop their real talents and learn how to live responsible and satisfying lives, just what we all try to achieve.

PAD uses the nationally recognized “Life Skills Assessment” tool developed by the Ansell Casey Foundation of Seattle.  It is a computer-generated questionnaire where young people and caregivers rate the youth in nine domains of competencies.  These include

• Career planning
• Housing and money management
• Self-care
• Social relationships
• Work and study skills
• Daily living
• Communication
• Home life
• Work life

The assessment tool is available on the Internet and after computations of the initial evaluation we encourage providers, youths, and foster parents to pursue the site at their leisure.  It is user-friendly, youth-centered and filled with great information.

The scores are used as a planning tool for the independent living skills (ILS) service plan which highlights the areas for skill development and ways to increase competency.  We know that people learn in different ways and offer ideas and resources to help young people gain mastery in the needed areas.

OPTIONS Education and Employment Center 
Children’s Village OPTIONS Education and Employment Center is state-of-the-art facility located at 5 South Broadway in Yonkers, NY.  Here we offer formal instruction in a youth-friendly atmosphere.  There are three distinct classrooms, all Power Point equipped for instruction.  One room is a computer lab with twelve Internet accessible stations.
           
In addition to the structured classroom environment of the OPTIONS Education Employment Center, we provide supervised practice experiences.  In our employment services we provide instruction about resume writing and then in the computer lab we assist the young people in producing beautiful, professional resumes. 
           
We offer training and support to foster parents of adolescents.  We believe that most foster parents know how to parent well.  We also know that parenting ANY teenager in these challenging and unpredictable times can be daunting, thankless and frequently frustrating.  We believe that all parents need support and places to share stories of what they do that works and what they do that doesn’t.

PAD partners with another small Children’s Village program, Family Success.  This program creates opportunities for parents to discuss, share and learn with professional staff and other parents in a relaxed yet stimulating atmosphere.  We strive for every group to be both informative and fun, the same philosophy we apply to programs for youth.

In Family Success we help parents and their teenagers resolve conflicts.  We teach both to voice their concerns respectfully and fully.  We teach listening skills to both and then we teach how to look for win-win solutions that meet everyone’s needs.  To do that, we also teach how to distinguish between wants and needs.  We offer short-term groups where the goal is always achievement of measurable goals.