Purpose Statement

Venture Academy’s mission is to provide integral, effective, substance abuse treatment, counseling and support services for youth and young adults.

Principles and Philosophy of Service Delivery

Venture Academy specializes in the delivery of services to challenging youth and young adults. Working with young people with significant behavioural challenges is a very complicated process, requiring a principled approach to service delivery. Venture Academy utilizes the following principles in the development and delivery of its Programs’ services:

  • The program model will represent a bio-psycho-social perspective.
  • The treatment approach will be holistic, integrating interventions designed to improve the client’s functioning at home or in the community.
  • The treatment approach will utilize educational and therapeutic interventions which will enhance the client’s understanding of the impact of substance-abuse on their lives, and build practical life-skills which will diminish reliance on substances to meet developmental needs.
  • Provide the least intrusive intervention necessary to facilitate growth and change.
  • The delivery of services must respect client rights and demonstrate professional ethics.
  • Youth engage in the change process, through the development of therapeutic ‘helping’ relationships with appropriate boundaries.
  • Socially inappropriate behaviour in youth represents a dysfunctional but positive ‘intent’ to meet understandable needs in the context of their personal development and history.
  • Change may occur when new skills and strategies are developed and employed to satisfy the ‘intent’ of dysfunctional behaviour and meet personal/developmental needs.
  • Facilitating a change in the youth’s environment to address identified needs will promote motivation in the youth for change.
  • Services must represent accepted practices of intervention, while striving for innovation and creativity in their implementation.
  • Services must be accessible to those in need, and programs must be flexible in service delivery to minimize any barriers to participation and success for those in need.