At the heart of all they do, Pressley Ridge believes that children grow best in healthy families – ideally their birth families, but in reality, that is not always possible. In times when youth need additional support or higher levels of care outside of the home, they deserve to be in a nurturing environment with caring, supportive adults.

Pressley Ridge is a national leader in Treatment Foster Care, a specialized level of care for youth who have experienced trauma and may have significant emotional or behavioral needs. Youth who enter treatment foster care are temporarily placed with foster parents who provide a safe home and help the children stay connected to their family and community. Treatment foster parents are specially trained to support the child’s emotional and developmental needs and serve as a key team member, working to help change behaviors and build new skills.

Pressley Ridge developed the first therapeutic foster care program in the U.S. in the early 1980’s, which has since evolved into a nationally recognized Treatment Foster Care model and evidence-based pre-service training. Through over 40 years of practical experience and research, the Pressley Ridge Treatment Foster Care (PR-TFC) pre-service training has been designed to prepare treatment foster parents to care for traumatized children in their homes. The PR-TFC curriculum is focused on an understanding of how to change behavior and rooted in trauma-informed care and the importance of a strong relationship between foster parents and youth.

Pressley Ridge operates treatment foster care programs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. The organization trains and certifies foster parents using PR-TFC and then places youth with those families. In addition, Pressley Ridge trains other foster care agencies in their methods. Currently, more than 200 agencies across the U.S. are training their staff and foster parents using the PR-TFC curriculum.

“We have always taken our role as a partner in the community seriously, with a responsibility to make improvements in the field when necessary and share our knowledge to better support children and families through best practices,” said Susanne Cole, Pressley Ridge President and CEO. “Our expertise in Treatment Foster Care combined with the knowledge of what it takes to be a foster parent who supports children who have experienced trauma and other challenges is what led us to develop this curriculum and share it with others.”

In the past three years, nearly 400 foster care workers from organizations throughout the country have been certified as PR-TFC trainers. In addition, Colorado and Kansas have adopted PR-TFC as the official training curriculum for treatment and therapeutic foster care agencies within their states. This rapid increase in organizations utilizing PR-TFC confirms the transformative impact this training has on foster parents and the youth within their care.

Pressley Ridge’s current strategic plan is focused on ensuring that youth with serious behavioral challenges are living with their families or in the most family-like setting possible​. Pressley Ridge is actively working to expand family preservation services and to improve the quality of foster and kinship care nationwide for youth with significant behavioral health needs. Within the next few years, Pressley Ridge plans to release a kinship training curriculum geared specifically toward helping child welfare professionals in their support of aunts, uncles, grandparents and other extended family who are caring for youth.

As part of this strategic direction, Pressley Ridge recently took on a new role in child welfare in Texas as part of the state’s transition to a community-based care model. Operating as Texas Family Care Network, Pressley Ridge is responsible for transforming and managing the child welfare system in the Deep East Region. The goal is to improve outcomes for children and families with specific measurable results, which includes returning children to their biological families or finding adoptive families as quickly as possible.

Susanne Cole believes the community-based care model is the future of child welfare. “Pressley Ridge has expanded into this new business line as part of our commitment to a model that is best for kids and families and works to prevent them from entering the child welfare system in the first place.“

For nearly two centuries, Pressley Ridge has continuously adapted to meet the ever-changing needs of vulnerable kids and families. As the child welfare system continues to evolve, you can be certain that Pressley Ridge will remain at the forefront of ensuring that children and families receive the support and care they need to succeed.

 September is Kinship Caregiver Appreciation Month. Pressley Ridge is leading the way in kinship care and on September 4^th, launched the Kinship Steering Committee Kick-Off. It was a day packed full of supportive conversations and brainstorming. 

A special thank you to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services KinConnector Program for providing a beautiful variety of gifts and information for the Steering Committee. We also send out a huge thank you to Kansas Department For Children and Families for supporting Pressley Ridge’s development of a training curriculum geared specifically to help Child Welfare Professionals in their support kinship families. We are so excited to share the heart of why we are standing in the gap for kinship caregivers nationally. Great things are on the horizon!

This foster care month, one family offers hope to others who may be experiencing a similar situation.

Poor decisions prior to the birth of her youngest son led to the removal of all three of Shannon Fleeson’s children. Newborn Xander was placed in a Pressley Ridge treatment foster home with the Parker family, while the two older youth were placed with a different agency. This was a wakeup call for Shannon and her husband, and they began taking the necessary steps to better their lives and reunite their family.

Noticing how well Xander was being cared for and how supportive the Parkers were of their communication and family visits, Shannon requested that her other two children be placed in Pressley Ridge foster homes. “It always felt like Pressley Ridge was working to reunify our family. So, we pushed hard to get all kids to be under Pressley Ridge’s care.”

The foster parents and Pressley Ridge Program Supervisor Alexa Bean went above and beyond to support Shannon as she was building a better life. Alexa helped her get a new pair of glasses and always made sure that the Fleeson family was able to spend quality time together. Shannon recalls, “One time the power was out at the building where we usually had our visits. Alexa went out of her way to keep our visit, even with this setback. She set up a visitation outside at a park since we couldn’t use the building.”

While it was stressful to be separated from her children, Shannon was in regular contact with them, which made her own journey much more successful. She appreciated that Pressley Ridge encouraged the biological family and foster family connection. The Fleesons and Parkers worked as team, and Shannon believes that her son Xander truly benefitted from his time in foster care.

The Fleesons have worked hard to stay clean ever since Xander was born, and as a result the family has been reunited. They continue to stay in touch with the Parkers – even making them Xander’s godparents – as well as the Pressley Ridge staff. Shannon “Alexa takes her job to heart. The kids are not just another file. She gave us chance of retribution, a second chance.”

Shannon wants other families who are experiencing Child Protective Services cases to see that there are success stories, and they shouldn’t give up. She wants those families to see that foster care doesn’t have to be a negative experience; foster care workers are supportive of reunification.

Alexa Bean couldn’t be more proud of the effort of both the foster and biological families. “This is what family engagement looks like. Due to the foster parent’s willingness to be a support for the Fleeson family, they were able to build a positive bond and relationship that continues to this day. I am so proud of the work, time and effort that both the Fleesons and Parkers displayed throughout the case. I am thankful to be part of their successful reunification story.”