Hello! I’m Dorothy,
and this is my first interview with a staff member from The Children’s Campus.
Barb Carrasco is the girl’s Division Director and she has been
working at The Children’s Campus for three years. I find her very open to
suggestion and willing to hear what residents have to say before adding her
ideas to the mix. She oversees five units that treat females:
·
Gemini1 is a staff-secure unit.
·
Gemini 2 is a lock-secure unit.
·
Units teach DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), a comprehensive
treatment approach that is a blend of psychotherapy and psychosocial skills
training.
·
These girls have behavior and emotional issues, but not to the
extreme.
·
The therapy method is CBT (cognitive behavior therapy.)
·
A lock-secure unit.
·
The girls on this unit have more physical aggression and often try
to run away.
·
Residents on this unit tend to be here longer to get stable.
·
Riverview is also a CBT unit.
·
This group home is a semi-independent home, where staff are there
to guide the 24\7.
I was interested to find out why Ms. Carrasco chose to work at The
Children’s Campus. “There are a couple of reasons. I worked for another agency
and I took a break from residential treatment but I found that I really missed
the residential treatment environment and I loved working with the kids; so I
decided to come back.”
I asked Ms.
Carrasco what she thought was the most challenging issues when working with the
kids here. “I am more hopeful than the kids that things will get better for
them. It is difficult getting the kids to see the potential they have, and
getting the kids to see that there are reasons to try. Also, the time
constraint on talking one-on-one with the residents is a problem.”
I asked her
what the most rewarding part of working here was and she replied, “Graduation
day; just seeing the kids succeed and being happy. I love hearing what the kids
have to say about their experience at The Children’s Campus because not
everyone has the same experience.”
I asked Ms.
Carrasco if she has her own kids she replied, “Yes.” I asked her what she
brings from her own parenting style to the kids here, “I have high expectations
but not so high that they cannot achieve, though.” When I asked her if working
here is like having your own kids she said, “Yeah, probably. It would have to,
in a way, because you spend the majority of your life at work.”
Next I asked Ms. Carrasco what is her favorite memory from working
here and she replied, “There was a play last fall and the kids did really well
in it. People from the community had good things to say about it.”
When I asked her what is the funniest thing she remembers from
working here she said, “The younger kids I use to work with; kids say and do
things that they see on TV, they act like the adult characters, they throw out
a one-liner at random moments.”
I asked Ms. Carrasco if there was ever a time where one of the
residents did or said something that made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. “Yeah,
at the Spirit of Giving Awards (an agency event held in January each year) one
of the residents wrote a tribute to another employee, Mrs. Hancock. It really
touched me; it was hard not to cry.”
To wrap the interview up I asked Ms. Carrasco if
she had anything else to add she said, “It is really a great place to work.”
Note: The above interview was performed by a 17 year old resident of
The Children’s Campus. The program
descriptions are solely her interpretation of services. To learn more about specific programs or
treatments, please contact our Admissions Office at 1-888-8-CAMPUS x288 or
TCCAdmissions@childrenscampus.org.