St Francis Academy, Salina, Kansas

A national, not-for-profit behavioral health care organization serving children, adolescents, and their families. The Rt. Rev. Robert Herbert “Father Bob” Mize (1870-1956), founded St. Francis Academy (originally the St. Francis Boys' Home) in 1945. At that time he was the retired Bishop of Western Kansas. The first residential facility was located in Ellsworth, Kansas, and opened on Sept. 15, 1945. In 1948 a second residential facility was established in Salina, Kansas. These homes provide a caring environment for boys. The healing process is termed “therapy in Christ.” It has four basic principles: unconditional love, forgiveness, honesty, and starting and ending the day with God. Beginning in 1951, additional treatment programs were added to the Academy through counseling, psychiatric, psychological, and social services staff. The Lake Placid, New York, campus was established in 1965; the campus in Atchison, Kansas, opened in 1991; the former St. Michael's Farm for Boys in Picayune, Mississippi, merged with St. Francis in 1992; community services and case management programs were established in Santa Fe, Española, and Taos, New Mexico, in 1995; a girls' residential facility was opened in 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Building Families family preservation program began in 1996 in western Kansas. Programs include residential treatment centers for boys and girls, an emergency shelter for temporary care, secure living facilities for chronic runaway boys and girls, independent living skills transitional programs, a residential program for dually diagnosed developmentally disabled/behavior disordered boys, outpatient services for boys and girls, early-intervention programs, case management and community services, family preservation programs, and team-building programs. All St. Francis residential treatment centers are accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.