Thornwell

Residential services: 52 children between the ages of 12 and 22 were served in 2023 through the attachment-based residential care (a.r.c) program and transitional living program. For 147 years, Thornwell has been a safe and welcoming place for children and youth whose lives have been shattered. Thornwell's a.r.c program is designed for youth ages 12-18 who have early experiences of trauma, abuse, neglect, displacement, and abandonment. Some are placed here by the state of south carolina. Others have been adopted by families but have struggled to overcome their trauma and/or have attachment-related issues in the home. The transitional living program is designed to help young adults ages 18-23 learn independent living skills necessary to balance life's responsibilities through vocational and educational support, emotional support, and supervision. A total of 11 independent living skills classes supported the healthy and positive transition to adulthood for these young adults.children living on the Thornwell campus are provided with loving christian homes, nutritious meals, clothing, educational support, medical and dental care, and mental health counseling. Fifty a.r.c and transitional living participants received counseling services through 989 sessions and assessments in 2023 to help them heal from the traumas they have experienced. Thornwell has a partnership with an equine therapeutic riding program and an art therapist to give children other ways in which they can manage feelings and process past trauma. An occupational therapist assesses sensory needs. In addition, Thornwell uses the evidence-based trust-based relational interventions (tbri) model to create a therapeutic milieu that can help our young people heal attachment wounds and develop an ability to form strong, supportive relationships.

Academic services:thornwell's academic services served 451 children in 2023. These services include a child development center, a learning center, and read right. Child development centerthornwell's child development center is licensed by the south carolina department of social services (dss) and operates under all applicable federal, state, and local laws. The center partners with the south carolina advocates for better care (abc) -- south carolina's quality childcare rating system -- as well as the south carolina association of community action partnerships' (scacap) early head start and the south carolina first steps 4k programs to provide nurturing, responsive, and high-quality care and learning services to children, ages 6 weeks through 4 years old. These partnerships align with the developmentally appropriate practices, curriculum, and activities goals of south carolina's early learning standards.our facility provides care and services to over 120 children and families and houses six (6) early head start classrooms, one (1) 3k classroom, and three (3) 4k classrooms. Our classrooms' learning environments are rich, varied, warm, stimulating, and safe for young children's healthy exploration and development. Each classroom has age and developmentally appropriate furnishings, equipment, materials, toys, and learning centers. In 2023, 132 children ages 6 weeks to 4 years old received high-quality educational care.our teachers help to support and promote optimal development in the areas most important to young children by establishing a sense of trust and safety, along with autonomy with connectedness, empowerment, and self-worth. All classroom teachers have at minimum the ecd101 credential, and all 4k teachers are educated at the bachelor's level. All classroom teachers are trained in the creative curriculum for early childhood education (a research-based developmentally appropriate curriculum which provides goals and objectives for children with four main categories of interest: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language), teaching strategies gold (an authentic, ongoing observational system for assessing children from birth through kindergarten) which helps our teachers observe children in the context of every day experiences, and conscious discipline (a classroom-first behavioral model that extends into a wider life model based around empowering adults first and subsequently children with positive conditioning, emotional regulation and loving guidance). Through advanced education, on-going trainings, and professional development opportunities, our teachers are equipped to meet each child's academic and social/emotional needs using developmentally appropriate practices in a stimulating, engaging, hands-on, and safe learning environment, preparing our children for success in school and in life.learning centerfor 2023, the learning center served a total of 37 residential students in the afternoon tutoring program. Twelve presbyterian college students were hired to provide tutoring services in all general education subjects with math as the main focal point. All 12 tutors were funded through the presbyterian college federal work study program. They all worked diligently with our residential students with homework, projects, final exam prep & end of course exam preparations. In june 2023, the school year ended with 19 students and a 100% passing rate. End of the year star assessment data shows an average of 1 year and 6 months (1.6) in reading & an average growth of 7 months (0.7) in math. One student graduated from clinton high school and has enrolled with piedmont technical college. In addition to tutoring residential students, the learning center offered momentum summer camp a day camp for kids ages 5 to 12 that provided an opportunity for children to grow academically during the summer while also having fun. In 2023, 32 campers experienced an average grade-equivalent growth of 6 months (0.6) in reading and math in two months of educational summer fun. Read rightin addition to these tutoring programs, the learning center offers read right which served 84 students in 2023. Read right is a reading empowerment program that seeks to eliminate reading problems by remodeling the neural network in the brain, specifically for reading. It differs from most reading intervention programs in that read right focuses on deriving meaning from the text to read at a level of excellence. Read right is delivered in small groups or one-on-one in the read right center, or virtually, wherever a student may reside.read right has expanded tutoring services to include south carolina department of social services foster children. This new opportunity allows us to serve beginning readers and english language learning students as well.

Community based services:building familiesthornwell's community-based family intervention operates program sites in: - south carolina with 1 full-time supervisor - greenville (1 site with 3 staff) - clinton (2 sites with 2 staff) - columbia - myrtle beach - charleston- Georgia and Florida with 1 full-time supervisor - dunwoody, ga - lilburn, ga - tucker, ga - tampa, fl (2 sites with 2 staff)the building families program provides in-home counseling to children and their families, with the mission of providing high-quality, trauma informed, attachment focused clinical intervention, with the addition of school-based counseling services in 2023. Building families also offers parenting classes and group workshops (both in person and virtually) which are open to the community. During 2023, we continued to provide in-home services with virtual options to serve families who were out of our service area. In 2023, our program served a total of 1,208 children and family members. This was a 33% decrease from the previous year. In 2023, building families served children and families in the following ways: - 101 families received parenting classes and participated in workshops - several families completed 12-15 weeks of intensive family therapy with 90% of participating families successfully completing the clinical program. The building families program is an intensive therapy program, assisting families to increase overall functioning and to improve family relationships. Additionally, the treatment services focus on decreasing interfering behaviors, supporting caregivers, and processing significant transitions. Families are supported in achieving their personalized goals concentrating on family connectedness, developing new skills, and reducing stress for caregivers. Building families strives to improve communication and healthy family functioning through the use of clinically supported practices, using a trauma-informed perspective, based on trust-based relational interventions (tbri). All therapists are master level educated with full or provisional licensure in their field. Foster carethornwell's foster care program was established in march 2016 as a child placing agency (cpa) licensed by the south carolina department of social services. Thornwell's foster care program is designed to equip, train, support and retain well-trained foster parents to ensure stable foster placements for children in south carolina. Providing children in need with safe homes to support trauma recovery and healing while their families cope with crisis is a priority for the foster care program. Thornwell foster care continues to serve the upstate, midlands, and pee dee areas of south carolina. The foster care program recently added a foster care supervisor to the team. The program continues to have 6 additional staff members including a foster care program director, program coordinator, 3 family specialists, 1 foster care lead family specialist, and 1 foster care licensing specialist. There is one vacancy in the program as of the date of this report. Thornwell's recruitment efforts are led by the program marketing and recruitment specialist. This role serves as the point of entry for all individuals inquiring about fostering and provides information, clarity, and support until the decision to apply to foster is made. This position is integral to targeted recruitment efforts and plans. The foster care program has adopted trust-based relational intervention (tbri), an evidence-based therapeutic approach, to train foster care staff to work with foster parents to meet the needs of children from hard places. Thornwell organizes a quarterly family fun day for foster parents and their children so families can meet and network with each other, offering a community of support. Thornwell offers regional training on a quarterly basis to Thornwell foster families. In addition to training by Thornwell staff, foster parents were offered free attendance at 3 different conferences in 2023. Thornwell partnered with the foster parent association, flourishing families, and the hope for the journey conferences to diversify the type of training foster parents receive. In 2023, we provided support, training, and resources to 65 licensed families comprising 113 foster parents. The foster care program placed 83 children in safe and loving foster homes in 2023.the foster care village, which are houses on the Thornwell campus that are leased to foster families, had two foster families occupying these homes in 2023. These families accommodate 4-5 children in each home and can take advantage of resources available on the Thornwell campus such as free access to gym, pool, and events.strengthening familiesthornwell partners with children's trust of sc and gateway counseling center (laurens county alcohol and drug abuse commission) to bring the strengthening families program to laurens county. Strengthening families is considered an early intervention and prevention program, and an evidence-based family skills training program that works with parents/caregivers and their children for 14 weeks. The parents/caregivers must have a child between the ages of 6-11 to participate, per grant requirements. The families are incentivized to attend by Thornwell providing a family meal, gas cards to help with transportation costs, take-home family activities and meals to encourage and reinforce family bonding and relationship skills, and milestone gifts to further incentivize graduating from the program. Graduation is a celebration of these families and their accomplishments in completing the program. This milestone includes a meal with various community and Thornwell guests, gift cards and baskets, family portraits, and framed certificates of completion for graduates. In 2023, Thornwell provided 2 cycles of strengthening families, serving a total of 62 children and families with a 86% graduation rate for both cycles. Additionally, Thornwell provided 2 booster sessions to keep skills current and bolster healthy relationships where 58 former children and family graduates were provided with passes to and vouchers for food and activities at Thornwell's spring and fall festivals.

Other programs:dining hallin partnership with the usda, Thornwell's dining hall served a record breaking 38,325 grab-n-go free meals in 2023 to those experiencing food insecurity across laurens county, south carolina. The grab-n-go meals program initially started as a response to the pandemic in 2020. This vital program helps ease caregivers' burdens by providing free, healthy breakfast and lunch options and ensures children stay nourished and healthy during the summer months. Thornwell's child nutrition team has served 206,814 meals since the program began in 2020.lushacres farmlocated on 340 acres of Thornwell's campus in clinton sc, lushacres farm is a working farm that exemplifies Thornwell's mission to "provide safe and nurturing environments where we educate, equip, and support children and families to thrive". Lushacres farm exists to grow, source, and equitably distribute healthy food products as well as provide family-focused activities and events for Thornwell and the surrounding communities. The products grown at lushacres are sold and distributed via the year-round farm market that is located on-site and the new mobile market with proceeds from all market sales and events going back to support the Thornwell programs serving children and families. Lushacres also serves as an educational hub for several different groups across the state by hosting land lab opportunities for agricultural education classes at the high school and college level, as well as partnering with clemson extension's rural health and nutrition program to begin coordinating learning opportunities for food and nutrition education, and clemson extension's agricultural safety program for farm and work safety education. In 2023, nearly 500 school field trip visitors learned about the importance of agriculture and its impact on healthy living.in 2023, lushacres, the city of clinton, and presbyterian college came together to combat food insecurity in our local community. Planning efforts conducted in 2022 led to the development of "gleaning day" which was a volunteer-based project to collect, organize, and equitably distribute food to our local community. Through this partnership, over 150 boxes of food were distributed to members of our community. In late 2023, lushacres partnered with the wholespire chapter of laurens to apply for a grant focused on addressing food insecurity in laurens county. The grant was awarded, and this allowed lushacres to purchase and build-out a mobile farm market which also accepts snap and healthy bucks.in the farm's efforts to promote heart-healthy and family-friendly activities, lushacres has a playground and a mile-long walking trail in the farm market area which are free and open to the public. In 2023, the farm market hours were extended, and the playground was expanded to provide additional opportunities for families to enjoy the outdoors in a safe location.in april of 2023, lushacres held its 2nd annual spring festival, seeing nearly 700 visitors in attendance. In october of 2023, lushacres held its 3rd annual fall festival, with nearly 2,000 visitors in attendance over four consecutive weekends. The festivals have continued to serve as a great platform for Thornwell ambassadors to engage with the public to continue educating others on the work of the ministry. The festivals saw the primary use of volunteers on the farm, with 118 volunteers contributing almost 600 volunteer hours during the festival season alone.to continue efforts to promote an environment for education and outreach, lushacres also increased advertising efforts to gain more field trips to the farm. In 2023, almost 600 students came out to the farm for either a spring or fall field trip to the farm where they could learn about various topics including different types of livestock production, row-crop production, and strawberries and general plant production. In late 2023, lushacres staff also began working to add a pollinator education exhibit, and an earth science program to add to the curriculum-based education that school groups were seeking.