Mooseheart’s Model of Care
A Nurturing Approach to Fostering Growth
Children residing at Mooseheart are cared for by Family Teachers, who have the responsibility of providing a family environment where youth can get their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs met in a healthy, proactive manner. To accomplish this important task, Family Teachers receive extensive training and support in the Mooseheart Model of Care.
The Model incorporates four key components:
- Empowering youth
- Building relationships
- Teaching skills
- Consistency
The Importance of Family Teachers
Good Family Teachers are warm, caring, fun, helpful, reliable, and fair. They are trained to develop positive relationships with the youth in their care and to teach the children how to cultivate healthy relationships with others. Youth are welcomed into families where they play, pray, make decisions, celebrate birthdays and special occasions, and work together to support one another. Strong relationships create bonds of trust and help children feel connected and valued. It is this sense of belonging and participation in healthy relationships that lays the foundation for children to become competent and compassionate citizens.
What Family Teachers Do:
Supporting Every Child’s Journey
Every youth needs to learn certain skills in order to be successful, and it is the Family Teacher’s job to teach those skills. Family Teachers utilize a social skills curriculum that promotes social and educational success. The skills encompass areas as basic as following instructions, accepting no answers and greeting others. Even complex skills such as conflict resolution, assertiveness, and maintaining relationships are addressed. The curriculum includes skills that teach children how to be successful in a variety of settings. This focuses on:
Sportsmanship
Conversation Skills
Study Skills
Moral and Spiritual Decision Making
Family Teachers focus on skills that will be the most helpful and appropriate for individual children. For example, with a very young child, Family Teachers might be helping him/her learn to use words instead of screaming or crying to communicate needs. With a child in middle school, Family Teachers may concentrate on peer relations or completing homework. And with a high school student, Family Teachers might focus on job-finding strategies or budgeting and money management.
Encouraging Growth Through Motivation Systems
While the social skills curriculum guides what to teach, Family Teachers are also trained how to teach the skills, using interactions that encourage children to continue making positive steps toward skill acquisition. The goal is to empower the child to make new behaviors a permanent part of daily life (internalization); and to enable the child to use these behaviors and skills in many different situations (generalization).
Learning new skills can be difficult and children often need a great deal of support and encouragement in the beginning. The Mooseheart Model of Care incorporates a motivation system that provides added reinforcement in the form of a token economy. Children are rewarded with positive points for engaging in positive behaviors. Similarly, they can lose points for displaying negative behaviors. The points are then exchanged for privileges, such as watching television, talking on the phone, or playing video games. The motivation systems (Daily, Weekly, Achievement and Natural/Logical) are structured into levels such that the child’s behavior determines the level of reinforcement, as well as the privileges he/she can use.
Guiding Kids to Success
The structured motivation system provides children with an external reason to change their behavior until they recognize the benefits and can internalize the positive actions. It allows Family Teachers to offer positive reinforcement for new, appropriate behaviors. As children learn new ways to experience success and their intrinsic motivation grows, the structure of the motivation system can gradually be faded out. Reducing reliance on external motivators (points) is crucial for developing self-control and self-discipline. In essence, the motivation system functions like a plaster cast for a broken leg: it provides essential support during the healing process, and its removal is a positive sign of progress.
Empowering Young Minds with the 1-2-3 Magic Program
With our younger population (those who do not possess the cognitive abilities to comprehend the motivation systems) Family Teachers use a modified version of the 1 -2-3 Magic program developed by Dr. Thomas Phelen. The methods used with 1 -2-3 Magic are simple, straightforward and immediate. Children can earn special privileges and activities for positive behaviors, or brief time-outs for negative choices. The program helps teach young children about cause/effect and promotes the development of self-discipline.
Children make greater improvements and are more motivated to achieve personal success if they have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. The Mooseheart Model of Care also incorporates a self-government process that teaches and empowers youth to make sound, ethical decisions. Youth learn valuable leadership and teamwork skills, while taking an active role in making decisions that affect the functioning of their home.
A Safe, Supportive Environment for Every Child
The Mooseheart Model of Care provides a positive learning environment for children. Within the context of a family, kids learn to build healthy relationships. They are taught important developmental and life skills, and are empowered to make positive choices. In the Mooseheart Schools, teachers use the Mooseheart Education Model/ which also incorporates the key components of relationship building and teaching skills. The cohesiveness between home and school creates consistency and maximizes learning opportunities for the children.
In order to maintain high standards of care, Mooseheart takes lengthy measures to monitor the Mooseheart Model of Care and ensure that children are being provided with a safe environment. One way of doing this is to ask the children themselves. Several times a year, children are interviewed about their safety and satisfaction with Mooseheart. The interviews provide us with a valuable measure of the care we provide.
The Model of Care Around the World
The Mooseheart Model of Care is founded on the highly effective Teaching Family Model, a research-based approach aimed at equipping students with essential social, academic, and independent living skills. This comprehensive framework fosters their development into self-sufficient, successful adults. Since its introduction in 1999, Mooseheart has seen remarkable success in preparing students for adulthood, empowering them to excel in education, personal growth, and professional development.
At the core of the Mooseheart Model is a commitment to individualized care, positive role modeling, and a structured, supportive environment. By providing students with the tools to make informed decisions, this model helps build a solid foundation for their future success.
The proven effectiveness of the Mooseheart Model has garnered attention from child care organizations, educational institutions, and social service agencies worldwide. Organizations from diverse regions such as Tanzania, Romania, Argentina, and the Orphan Train Project have sought out Mooseheart’s specialized training programs. These institutions have sent staff to learn from our expertise, adopting and adapting elements of the Mooseheart Model to meet the unique needs of their student populations.
Through its ongoing commitment to sharing best practices, Mooseheart has positioned itself as a leader in child welfare and care. Our model serves as an inspiration for organizations globally, encouraging the implementation of similar frameworks that foster success in youth development.
With its adaptability and emphasis on holistic growth, the Mooseheart Model of Care has become a benchmark in the field of child care and youth development. It continues to be a vital resource for nurturing resilience, independence, and lifelong success in children and young adults.
