The Peoria-based Children’s Home Association of Illinois is expanding its capacity with a reopened and redesigned building on the Youth Farm campus.
A ribbon cutting Tuesday morning marked the official opening of the Challenger Cottage, a facility designed to house up to eight girls between the ages 9 and 21 in need of Qualified Residential Treatment Programs.
Qualified Residential Treatment Programs, or QRTP, include support and treatment for children with developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, mental health challenges and medical conditions like seizure disorders and diabetes.
Chief Program Officer Curt Mower said a partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] helped them identify girls with developmental disabilities as a group in need of more space.
“A lot of what we put in place in this program is we have an enhanced staffing ratio, so we have more people around as supportive caregivers to those youth, on our staff to be available to them,” said Mower. “We also added a collection of funding for therapeutic services that can be provided throughout the community.”
The Challenger Cottage includes a planned nursing presence on-site for 14 hours a day, as well as a physician medical director and tele-psychiatry services. The Youth Farm campus includes access to various therapies, including equine therapy, art therapy, music therapy, sand therapy and more.
Mower says the redesign and reopening process took a little under a year, then had to go through a months-long process with DCFS to make sure it could meet all the proper programming requirements.
Mower says the Challenger Cottage is currently home to four girls, with more placements on the way and the option to expand from eight to 10 beds if necessary.
“Opening Challenger Cottage represents a significant milestone in our commitment to providing tailored, trauma-informed care to youth in need of specialized support,” Home President and CEO Scurry Miller said in a news release.
“This facility ensures that each resident receives the personalized care and attention they deserve, addressing both their cognitive and medical needs, while supporting their emotional and social development.”
The Youth Farm campus on Plank Road in Peoria provides a safe place for children already in the DCFS system who experienced abuse, adverse childhood events or other trauma. Mower says having a residential option for these children is a key component of effective care.
“It’s a place where some of the really, the most vulnerable, most traumatized youth and children in the state of Illinois have a place where they can be safe and recover and heal from what they’ve been through,” said Mower.
The Youth Farm can house around 50 children total. Mower says the facility averages 85-90% capacity between five different cottages.
Referrals to the facility come from DCFS, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Illinois State Board of Education.
“We’ve got a solid number of youth that are out there who are in the situation where they need a solid place to live,” Mower said.
The Children’s Home Association of Illinois provides various other services, particularly in working with children in foster care.
