Secret Harbor - Our History

1947-2008:  Secret Harbor provided intensive residential treatment programming for over 60 years in a remote setting in the San Juan Islands.  The residential center’s role of working with some of our States most troubled youth was well known and respected for providing safe and effective individual treatment in an isolated environment.  In 2008, the Cypress Island Residential Center was closed to make way for community based residential programming across Skagit County, Washington.

1998:  Secret Harbor’s first steps into the community began with the opening of Foster Care Resources, an intensive treatment foster care program.  This community component provided some transitional resources for youth in residential programming, but also opened the Agency to younger children and both boys and girls.  The Foster Care Resources program includes specialized recruitment and training of foster families who are provided tremendous support from the agency to serve children in family settings.
 
2008:  Secret Harbor’s Staffed Residential Homes, located in several communities in Skagit County, added a critical component to the agency’s overall continuum of care.  Children and youth reside in family-like living environments in homes in the community that have no more than six youth per home.  By definition, these environments are residential homes that are richly staffed to support youth in their progression toward permanency in foster care, with their family or living independently.

2009:  The Family Connections program at Secret Harbor operates on a single philosophical point: Children and Youth should reside in their own families whenever possible and resources should be provided to those families to help them be successful.  This program helps children and youth transition back into their family environments after successful times in residential or foster care or helps KEEP them in their own home by providing the support families need to avoid their children being placed outside their home.

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