Established in May 2005, Traverse Youth Transport provides families of at-risk adolescents who are being enrolled in a therapeutic school or program with therapeutically oriented crisis intervention and transport services. Traverse staff offers support to the parents as they inform the youth of their decision, as well as helping the youth make a physically and emotionally safe transition into the therapeutic setting the parents chose. Traverse's primary goal is to provide an empathic interaction with each youth to help produce as little resistance to the destination program as possible.
Traverse sends two staff members for each transport with at least one being the same gender as the youth. The staff meets with the parents the evening before the transport to review the details of the process, review the child's background and presenting behaviors, and offer the parents any relevant support.
Traverse Youth Transport staff members each have at least two years of therapeutic program experience and a college degree, or a minimum of three years of therapeutic program experience if they do not hold a college degree. Each member of the staff is certified through Crisis Prevention Institute in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, and both the agency and staff are registered with California's TrustLine Registry.
Managing partners Tyson Crowder and Chandra Rueff, each have 10+ years of experience working with at-risk youth in a variety of program settings, including residential treatment, wilderness programs, therapeutic boarding schools and community-based treatment. Traverse has bases of operation in both the northwestern and southeastern United States.
Editors Note: Traverse Youth Transport wrote this New Perspective. All information included came directly from them.