Rimrock Trails receives nearly $12K grant from St. Charles Foundation

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) – Rimrock Trails Treatment Services said it "is tremendously grateful" to receive $11,900 in grant funds from the St. Charles Foundation’s Basic Needs Grant Program. 

Funding from the St. Charles Foundation ensures that the teens in the Rimrock Trails residential treatment program can participate in essential enrichment activities and have access to the basic needed items that will assist them towards their recovery.

“Rimrock Trails relies on support from our community partners to strategically meet our clients where they are at. No matter the financial situation, we continue to offer uncompromised, evidence-based, and affordable treatment for the underserved and most vulnerable individuals and families in Central Oregon. Funding from our valued partners at the St. Charles Foundation ensures that we can facilitate enrichment activities and fulfill our client’s basic needs so that the kids can focus on their treatment and recovery.” – Michelle Duff, Rimrock Trails Treatment Services Community Relations Manager

Since 1990, Rimrock Trails has operated an adolescent residential treatment program located in Crook County. The program is one of only five in the State of Oregon serving adolescents 12-17 years of age with severe substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. Though the program is located in Prineville, clients are referred from all over the Northwest with the majority coming from Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties. To date, the residential treatment program has served over 4,000 teens and their families.

Instrumental to treatment, the residential program campus provides a safe and supportive therapeutic environment conducive to learning, empowerment, and change. They operate a learning center for school credit recovery, practice trauma-informed therapy, and ensure the teens participate in enrichment activities such as health and wellness programs, arts and craft classes, and outdoor adventures.

Innovative and creative approaches like enrichment activities are often necessary to engage youth in treatment and are essential to the therapeutic process.

The health care professionals at Rimrock Trails introduce kids to activities that they can do while they are chemical-free which replaces unhealthy behaviors and interrupts the pattern of addiction.

Enrichment activities offer the teens sober fun and potential lifelong hobbies that they will be able to engage in throughout their life all while connecting with others who have similar interests. This can result in improved social skills and self-esteem, lowered anxiety, and emotional self-awareness.

Though imperative to the teens' treatment, enrichment activities come with a cost. Upward of 80 percent of the clients Rimrock Trails serves classify as low-income, with limited or no insurance benefits covering the full cost of treatment.

The vast majority of teens they work with come from impoverished or homeless families characterized by parental substance use, violence, abuse, severe childhood neglect, trauma, and victimization. 

Many if not all the residents have not had the opportunity to engage in healthy enrichment activities, yet the Rimrock Trail’s team knows that exposing individuals to chemical-free endeavors promotes creativity, imagination, and stimulates growth.

In addition to not having participated in enrichment programs, the teens' families are often unable to supply the basic yet critical needed items utilized during residential treatment. Many of the teens arrive with very little clothing, personal hygiene products, and the needed medications to address their withdrawal symptoms.

As a nonprofit human services agency, Rimrock Trials ensures that these needs are met no matter the teens and their family's ability to pay. The St. Charles Foundation award will ensure that the teen’s needs are fulfilled.

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About Rimrock Trails Treatment Services

The mission of Rimrock Trails is to provide comprehensive, evidence-based treatment services to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by substance use and mental health issues.  They create a foundation for healing, strengthen family connections, and offer hope for a brighter future.

For nearly three decades the administration, board of directors, and team of behavioral health care professionals at Rimrock Trails have been dedicated to helping create lasting change in the lives of individuals and families struggling with mental health and substance use disorders in Central Oregon. Rimrock Trails is a 501c3 nonprofit human services agency, established in 1990 and has helped over 14,000 individuals and families in Central Oregon and beyond.

For more information about Rimrock Trails, please visit:  www.rimrocktrails.org

About the St. Charles Foundation

The mission of St. Charles Foundation is to support St. Charles Health System in the delivery and advancement of world-class health care in Central Oregon and achieve its strategic goals. They work with the community to develop and steward philanthropic resources to fund programs and capital projects that improve health, prevent disease, enhance the quality of life and provide the highest quality care possible for all St. Charles patients now and in the future. St. Charles recognizes the vital role safety net organizations play in helping meet their vision of "creating America's healthiest community, together". Safety net organizations are ones that deliver health care and other needed services to community members regardless of their ability to pay.

For more information about the St. Charles Foundation, please visit: https://foundation.stcharleshealthcare.org/