Harmony House
Harmony House provides temporary housing for 16 homeless women and children at a time. Housing is available 24/7 and residents stay for an average of 90 days. Harmony House’s goal is to empower women by providing them with the skills and resources necessary to maintain a more stable life for their families.
The Shelter runs family style from participating in family activities to sharing family style dinners every night. Each family member participates with the rest of the group fostering the system of support upon which the program is based.
The residents are aided in developing a plan to secure independent housing and develop effective life skills. Case workers develop an individual plan for each resident and following that plan aid them in using area resources to pursue their personal goals. Resources include job training, computer training, banking workshops and interview skills.
Safe Homes
Located in Danbury and Shelton, our two Safe Homes provide 24 hour, 7 day per week residential care in a home-like setting for children and sibling groups who are experiencing an initial out of home placement due to abuse, neglect, or family conflict.
The Safe Homes are a refuge for children who are without protection, without parental support and without hope. More than just offering the basic human rights of food, clothing and shelter, the Safe Home programs strive to heal and support children and families by meeting a higher level of need, teaching them about respect, compassion, and trust.
The Safe Homes support resiliency in these children by teaching new ways of expressing frustration and hurt and effective ways of dealing with anger and stress. They provide structure and predictability to enable a child to feel safe and secure, providing appropriate and therapeutic intervention when needed and providing the children with opportunities to use their strengths and interests in successful ways, improving their own sense of value.
The Safe Homes can each take in approximately ninety-six children over a twelve-month time span if each child remains in the home for their designated forty-five days. Of course, many factors contribute to how long a child will be living in the home. Unfortunately, many children stay with us for longer amounts of time than they need to due to a lack of resources in the community, which translates to a lack of suitable foster homes.
We have the rare and precious opportunity to change young lives in the brief time we are given with them, in which living no longer means surviving abuse or neglect. Children feel safe in the with us because not only they are removed from danger, but also because of a new awareness that there are people out there who care about them and are willing to help.
Please join us in helping Connecticut's neediest children by contacting
Permanency Diagnostic Center
Built upon the model of our Safe Homes
For children disrupting from foster care because of emotional or behavioral difficulties
Intensive evaluation and treatment of children ages 3-12
Children are evaluated by the child psychiatrist and receive intensive individual counseling twice a week
The environment is structured with an incentive system rewarding positive behavior
Children’s Group Home
For children ages 10 and under recently discharged from the state psychiatric hospital for children or as a place for a child to go to prevent hospitalization
Children with history of trauma, abuse, or neglect
Programming and staff training are trauma-focused
Goal to stabilize the residents in a homelike environment, getting them involved in the community, attend public schools, and prepare them for life back with a family
Girls Therapeutic Group Home
For girls 14-18 with complex psychiatric and behavioral disorders from long-term hospitalization and residential treatments both in and out of state
Home-setting with attached efficiency apartments for the girls to work their way up to more independence
Programming is trauma based and gender-focused
Transition to independent living or living with families
The Sanctuary Model®
The Sanctuary Model® represents a trauma-informed method for creating or changing an organizational culture to more effectively provide a consistent environment within which healing from traumatic experience can be addressed.
This model is a template for structuring organizational change in order to:
reduce violence
improve morale
learn democratic practice
improve outcomes
FCA is currently implementing the model in all of our programs.
The Sanctuary Model® was originally developed by Sandra L. Bloom, MD and colleagues for an inpatient setting serving traumatized adults. For more information on The Sanctuary Model® please visit: www.sanctuaryweb.com.