Growing up in today's world is serious business for any adolescent. The young people Walden House serves have had difficulty adjusting to the stresses of becoming an adult, and have used drugs and alcohol to cope with the challenges in their lives. Walden House was founded in 1969 to provide treatment and services to disenfranchised young people in San Francisco's Haight/Ashbury District.
We have separate academies for boys and girls, ensuring gender specific residential treatment for our clients. We provide educational services through on-site San Francisco Unified Day Schools, and a non-public school. We treat behavioral, mental health, and substance abuse problems, employing accepted "best practices" to help our young clients face their issues head on. We incorporate gender specific educational programming, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, relapse prevention, anger management, trauma intervention, and professional mental health services into care plans, and we utilize therapists and psychiatrists as part of our treatment team. A specific plan is designed for each individual, and program length is variable.
Today, Walden House is proud to offer the only residential substance abuse services for adolescents in San Francisco.
Residential Services
Our residential programs provide 24 hour care in an intensive, highly structured treatment environment.
The boys program, known as the Young Lions, is located in San Francisco. This facility houses 20 boys and provides a wide range of services including individual and group counseling, individual and family therapy, psychiatry, on-site education, off-site Independent Life Skills classes, and physical and nutrition education.
The girls program, known as Sisterkin, is also located in San Francisco. This facility houses 10 girls and provides a wide range of services including individual and group counseling, individual and family therapy, psychiatry, on-site education, off-site Independent Life Skills classes, and physical and nutrition education.
Community Day School
Each of our adolescent facilities has their own on-site gender specific school staffed by teachers from the San Francisco Unified School District.
Out Patient Services
This program serves both graduates from our residential programs and kids from the San Francisco community. We help kids that are phasing out of the foster care system adjust to their new life by providing case management services including vocational, educational, employment, housing services, relapse prevention, and family therapy.
YTEC or The Principal’s Center Collaborative
Walden House partners with a number of community programs and agencies to provide services at this high school where the classrooms are day treatment drug programs for adolescents with a substance abuse history, probated through the San Francisco Juvenile Drug Court.
For more information on any of our Adolescent Services, please contact us.