While working in a locked residential treatment program serving behaviorally challenged children in King County, our Founder created an opportunity to serve children's mental health needs in another way.

Community Care has been in operation since March in 1997.

We began by providing services to mental health agencies and DSHS in homes, followed by work in public school districts that used our service as a preventative measure so that children did not escalate into requiring expulsion or inpatient treatment. We now primarily serve special education programs in multiple school districts.

Every district has students that are out of control, threatening to other students, or with whom no one else wants to work. These students at one or many times may have assaulted a student or staff, destroyed property and have a reputation for being "frightening" or "unpredictable." We work directly with these students to reconnect and reintegrate them into the classroom and out of the margins. Our ultimate success comes when the student no longer needs us around to support them.

For example, in one district we ended the 2007-2008 school year serving nearly twenty students, five of which received two+ years of our direct service. At the beginning of school that next Fall, those students' behavior had stabilized to the point that direct services were not necessary. We did not view this as a loss; in fact, we viewed it as a success! The "buzz" was that these students were doing well academically and behaviorally. We were excited by our success in facilitating others to view these formerly aggressive students as likable and safe and we will continue to seek these challenges for helping other children achieve a successful turnaround.