1. Maryvale’s Community-Based Approach to Mental Health
The Maryvale community is a wellspring of support that meets a family from every angle to improve children’s lives. When a young person or their family members approach Maryvale, we make it our responsibility to deeply understand the complexities of the home environment and any other factors that shape a child’s development through community-based services.
Our Care Teams and Philosophy
In many cases, problems that are displayed by foster youth or other at-risk children are related to domestic conditions. Maryvale’s community-based service offerings take a young person’s whole environmental experience into consideration while working toward a healing path. Within our facilities and beyond, we believe in incorporating a collaborative network of support with and around families who are facing challenges or whose children need extra care. Here are some of the types of practitioners we collaborate with:
- Marriage Counselors
- Family Therapists
- Licensed Social Workers
- Mental Health Professionals
- Family Advocates
- Educators
- Religious personnel
Our network of care specialists provides therapeutic support to individuals, entire families, and groups of people with shared mental health needs. Our team is multicultural – we take an innovative approach to care that weaves in community values and an intrinsic understanding of what different neighborhoods and cultures want and need from a care perspective. Our team is bilingual and prepared to conduct counseling sessions in Spanish. We have seen how imbalances in educational access and financial stability can lead to disruptive, neglectful, and abusive family dynamics. Our team adopts a mindset that celebrates achievements and encourages positivity for all members of a family. Our philosophy is to reinforce individuals’ skills, strengths, and healthy behaviors rather than imposing an unfamiliar framework on vulnerable young people and their families.
Maryvale practitioners act as collaborators who work closely with an entire family to aid in recovery, build confidence, and create stability. Sometimes, this requires more profound therapeutic interventions with parents. We seek to improve children’s and their family’s lives - our marriage and family counselors offer support and promote positive mental health among parents. Our team is approachable, reliable, and invested in the people we care for.
Mental Health Support for Children of All Ages
In individual therapy sessions, a child will sometimes work one-on-one with a therapist. However, the entire family’s involvement in the healing process is essential. Our goal is to offer transformative methods and resources on an ongoing basis to increase safety and reduce the risk of abuse. Lessons and skills learned in a therapeutic session with our practitioners can continue to provide benefits for an extensive period of time, especially for a young person.
Mental health experts often discuss the need for early treatment. The longer a problem goes unrecognized or unsupported, the more likely it is to lead to more severe challenges in adolescence and adulthood. This is why we are intent on offering care to infants and young children in at-risk homes just as much as we aim to serve teens and young adults. Here are some of the outcomes that our team works toward through our holistic approach to mental health:
- Problem-solving skills
- Trauma recovery
- Increased ability to cope
- Building social support within and beyond a family
When working with teens and young adults, we incorporate life skills – effectively, we want to build a bridge between a young person and the world and empower them to lead a proactive, autonomous life. We aim to prepare young adults to succeed in the workforce by offering employment readiness counseling, money management tips, computer skills, and social skills.
Wraparound Services - Critical Support for Foster Kids Aging Out of the System
We recognize that the home environment is particularly volatile for some children, making it unable to provide the basic needs that all children require to function. In instances of severe difficulty, we use Wraparound Services to build a supportive network of care practitioners around a child and family. Wraparound services call upon a team that works with and around the child and his or her family. The team includes a Facilitator, Child and Family Specialist, therapist, a Parent Partner, and in some cases, a psychiatrist. We work with the Department of Children and Family Services and the Department of Probation to understand a family’s core issues and to explore how comprehensive mental health services can build resilience and hope in children.
We handle severely unsafe or abusive homes with deep sensitivity. At Maryvale, we can both intervene in a crisis and provide the building blocks for long-term stability in everyday life. Importantly, we do not attempt to offer care-based solutions on our own. Our team-based philosophy envelops families in a focused cohort of care providers that extend through Los Angeles. We also provide connections to local agencies and social services to address specific needs such as substance abuse, suicide risk, missing children, crime victims, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and more. By building bridges with an extensive network of care-focused practitioners in the area, we can ensure that each child and their family can access the support and solutions they need.
We offer these mental health services at our Duarte campus. We start with a conversation to assess a family’s situation and to chart the best path forward. Get in touch to learn more about how our community-based mental health approach can bring clarity and comfort to your family.
2. Childhood, Family & Mental Health Services at Maryvale
As Los Angeles’ longest-running children’s charity, families and young people can rely on Maryvale to offer unmatched care, education, and community services. Our services provide holistic therapeutic support for children throughout their educational journey and beyond. Through early education, community-based services, after-school program options, and more, we take a trauma-informed, compassionate approach to care that sets children and their families up for long-term positivity.
Maryvale was founded by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in 1856. What was in those days a one-of-a-kind haven for struggling children has remained an essential source of vital care, mental health support, and learning to this day. As the oldest, continuously running children’s charity in Los Angeles, Maryvale has gained the trust and support of countless families and local community members. We’ve watched many of our alumni grow up and thrive in spite of significant challenges that afflicted them in their youth, from trauma homelessness to abandonment, mental instability to lack of adult role models and caregivers. Our 165 years of operation have taught us that we can provide the highest level of care by living our values and remaining true to our Catholic beliefs.
In our earliest days, Maryvale functioned as an orphanage for lost or abandoned children. As time went on, our purview has expanded dramatically. We are now a multi-service agency - we offer care and education for infants, toddlers, and school-age children. Our programs also focus on supporting foster youth, children in the adoption system from early childhood through adolescence, and their families. Our work spans many disciplines, from early education and classroom learning to special services for girls and young women, educational programs, opportunities to deepen skills, community building, and many more. Our services are comprehensive and evolving – we adapt as the world changes to best meet young people and families where they need us and directly address the multitude of issues that are at the root of child abuse and neglect.
Maryvale’s foundational thinking has roots in a community formed in the seventeenth century called the Daughters of Charity. The Daughters of Charity are still in operation today and live their mission: to care for those who have the most serious needs – “the poorest of the poor.” This visionary group paved the way for our philosophy and core values that we continue to embody as an organization. We act as a caring, loving, safe space for young people who are particularly vulnerable when they are without the resources to take care of their essential needs.
At Maryvale, we blend the deep expertise of our extensive institutional history with emerging wisdom in the mental health field to build the most robust youth care offerings that Los Angeles has to offer. Our history taught us that being a single-offer environment simply did not provide the level of developmental support that young people need. Faced with orphaned, abused, neglected, and traumatized children, we have evolved our expertise and capabilities to grow and learn with the conditions of the world we live in. Today, this means robust community involvement, unique enrichment programs for young people, educational services, and more. Not only do we work with youth who are recovering from any number of traumatic experiences – but we also work proactively to help reduce domestic distress and improve families’ ability to live in harmony.
We are firm believers in the unique expression of each child’s specific needs and pathway to care. Our goal is to promote the best quality of life for every youth we work with. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to harm mitigation and trauma recovery. We go to great lengths to work dynamically with each child at the individual level - each young person in our care receives the support, mental health attention, and stability that they deserve.
We bring our mission and core values to life through a trauma-informed care model that considers the whole child. This includes a child’s need for safety, enrichment, socialization, creative expression, and encouragement to grow. Families can participate in our community-based programs, early education offerings, and after-school programs.
3. Early Education Opportunities at Maryvale
At Maryvale, we bring Catholic values to life through our work to build positive futures for children of all ages. In order to lead healthy, well-adjusted lives, children need mental stimulation, socialization, and a sense of belonging at an early age. The skills to develop into successful people are rooted in supportive, healthy experiences during infancy and early childhood. Preschool and kindergarten-age children may seem to be engaging in simple playtime when they are, in fact, in the process of transformative learning.
Maryvale has two Early Education Centers in Duarte and Rosemead. Our Duarte center offers three classrooms for infants and toddlers and six preschool classrooms. Our Rosemead center has four classrooms for infants and toddlers and four preschool classrooms. At both centers, we are dedicated to providing an enriching variety of learning activities designed to develop a child’s skills and lay the foundation for their future success in school and in life. Our versatile curriculum considers the whole child and adapts to meet children where they are, accounting for various learning styles and types of learning. We integrate indoor and outdoor activities, and we incorporate technology when appropriate.
Because we work to assess the best path forward for each child, our teachers are able to determine which activities will enrich, entertain, and challenge them at the individual level. The result is an encouraging, fun learning environment that instills curiosity, a joy of discovery, and creativity. Our teachers are caring, compassionate, and attentive. They value each child’s innate interests and skills and consider children from a holistic perspective, including their mental health, developmental progress, and cultural and familial circumstances. For these reasons, we are dedicated to understanding where children come from in order to best nurture them and build their capacity to flourish.
Maryvale’s Classroom Philosophy
At Maryvale, we offer a blended curriculum that rotates between guided instruction in small groups, utilizing Creative Curriculum. Through the Creative Curriculum, children can interact with objects, experience collaborative play, and ask questions. In this way, they build their own knowledge and ability to interact so that they develop language skills, physical aptitude, and cognitive growth at the same time. The Creative Curriculum acts as a comprehensive groundwork for the skills and subject areas that children will continue to explore throughout their education. Our teachers believe in encouraging children to explore their interests while promoting a breadth of knowledge and skills. Lesson plans are created to study the seasons, holidays, and the world we live in to build a sense of time progression and cultural awareness at an early age. Here’s how Maryvale implements the Creative Curriculum to engage children in active learning:
- Language Development: Children listen to and read stories, explore books, engage with images, and play games that involve concept and narrative development.
- Problem solving & Mathematics: Children practice spatial and numerical development by cultivating an understanding of measurement, size, space, and counting.
- Creativity: We encourage children to build things using a variety of artistic media, and we cultivate creative expression through music, dance, and other forms of expressive movement.
- Science: We promote interactions with nature and use outdoor time as an extension of the learning environment. Children are introduced to plants and are provided opportunities to observe how things grow and study animals, natural elements, and scientific experiments.
- Physical Development: Our curriculum integrates physical activities and fine motor skill development. This way, children get the exercise they need and begin to feel in control of their entire body through the development of fine and gross motor skillsets. There are activities to promote running, jumping, throwing, balancing, climbing, and smaller physical practices such as cutting, drawing, and writing.
- Health: Health and safety are integrated into all aspects of the learning environment, and we teach children about food, positive health and hygiene practices, and age-appropriate self-care. Maryvale provides a nourishing breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack, all of which are developed to encourage children to try culturally diverse, age-appropriate meals.
Age-Appropriate Program Options at Maryvale
Maryvale’s Early Education programs are designed to meet a variety of age groups, from infants to school-age children. Our infant care program offers essential support for children under 24 months, with low teacher to infant ratios. For infants under 12 months of age, the classroom schedule and activities are tailored to meet the needs of each infant focusing on building healthy attachments, introducing them to the world, and meeting their developmental needs. Our infant program incorporates both social and independent playtime, educational activities, and fundamental skill-building. Both our Rosemead and Duarte Centers have classroom areas intended explicitly for infant care. Very young infants are cared for in a separate classroom from older infants who are developing mobility and are ready for a regular schedule of eating, napping, and classroom activities.
Our centers also have classrooms specially designated for toddlers, ranging from 18 months to three years of age. In the toddler classrooms, the teacher-to-child ratio increases to one teacher for every six toddlers. As with all early education classrooms at Maryvale, our focus for toddlers is individualized and includes introducing core Creative Curriculum areas like music, art, language, and science. Toddlers learn essential social skills as well as potty training and the ability to care for themselves in preparation for a more structured classroom style, which begins during Preschool. Toddlers begin learning to follow simple one or two-step directions, cooperative play, and how to participate as a group.
At Maryvale, we recognize Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten as important stepping stones to cultivate the skills children need to be successful in Kindergarten. With one teacher dedicated to just eight students, our Preschool classrooms foster scheduled, structured teaching and learning through play. Preschoolers learn to pronounce letters and words, recognize numbers, write their first and last names, count objects, and build creatively. We encourage collaborative play and interactive learning so that children understand how to wait patiently, take turns, share, and resolve issues verbally.
Learn more about our unique approach to early childhood development, our tuition costs, and our leadership.
4. After-School Program Options at Maryvale
At Maryvale, our holistic approach to youth care, well-being, and creative learning extend beyond the walls of the classroom. We welcome school-age children, Kindergarten through sixth grade, to join us for before and after-school programs at both our centers.
Our after-school program is more than a solution to a need for care or supervision at the end of the school day. We take a child’s whole experience into account in order to provide a sense of safety, stability, routine, and fun. Plus, we design our before and after-school programs to make life easier and offer as much convenience as possible for parents and families. For before-school programs, Maryvale provides transportation to school each morning. For after-school programs, we pick up children after school and transport them to the center. We are aware that childcare beyond the school day seems difficult for many families to plan for or access. This is why we make it our goal to streamline children’s daily experience and take the burden off of the family while ensuring a positive, nurturing care environment that will help children feel supported and cared for. A daily routine is crucial, especially for young people. In addition to helping them build a sense of structure and anticipation, a routine can also increase their understanding of accountability, follow-through, and ability to make appropriate social bonds.
The whole-child, health-oriented philosophy that is foundational to our operation and our history applies in after-school programs just as much as it does in other Maryvale offerings. We kick off each afternoon in the after-school program with a healthy snack; then, we offer homework help and dedicated study time. As much as we value quiet study time, we also emphasize excitement, fun, games, and interactive educational activities. We provide a caring structure that blends indoor time with outdoor recreation and socializing. Group activities and collaborative exercises are core to the after-school experience at Maryvale. Our program acts as both a daily destination and a community providing a ratio of one teacher to every 14 children. We are committed to serving as a safe haven for children to relax after a full day at school and to decompress before heading home for the evening. Maryvale also provides support to families by providing full daycare during school holidays, and spring and summer breaks.
As with all Maryvale programs, our school-age staff members are sensitive to the cultures and lifestyles of children and their families. Our associates appreciate and foster the multicultural diversity of our youth and the communities they live in. Maryvale has bilingual staff who make efforts to communicate for youth in their home language.
Busy families seeking support during the morning and afternoon hours can get in touch with our Duarte center to learn more about our after-school program offerings.
