by Register-Guard Staff
The Oregon Social Learning Center will hold an open house at noon Friday to mark the opening of a new treatment center in Eugene.
The Patterson Annex, a 3,000 square foot building recently acquired and remodeled by OSLC, will serve as operating center for three OSLC programs that provide specialized foster care for teenage boys and girls who have been in trouble at home or with the law.
The new facility also will provide living space for a foster-care couple who provide respite care to other foster parents in the program.
The three OSLC programs, called Monitor, Transitions and Alternatives, place troubled youth with specially trained foster families who keep the children for six months at a time. About 20 youths are now involved.
During the program, the youths are taught social and educational skills according to a carefully defined program of increasing responsibility, says Patti Chamberlain, director of the specialized foster care programs.
“The difference between this approach and regular foster care is we are making the assumption that the family setting is a viable place to treat the kids,” she says. “In their day-to-day interactions with the kids placed with them, the families are actually providing treatment.”
The open house will be held at the Patterson Annex, located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pearl Street.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1987, The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com.