VISITOR S MANUAL APPALACHIAN TEEN CHALLENGE, INC. Dear Family Member,

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1 VISITOR S MANUAL APPALACHIAN TEEN CHALLENGE, INC. Dear Family Member, As you know, your loved one is now a student in our long-term Christian discipleship-training program. He/she will be a resident at Teen Challenge for twelve to fourteen months, a genuine step toward dealing with his/her life-controlling problems. At their request, and because you are a family member age 18 or older, I am inviting you to participate in his/her rehabilitation by visiting, writing, and speaking with him/her via phone. Students may receive visits once every two weeks beginning the fifth Friday following their enrollment. If their 30 th day in the program is also the fifth Friday, he/she will be eligible for visits the following week. An immediate family member is defined as the student s wife/husband biological mother or father biological sisters or brothers biological grandparents biological children *The biological parent of a student s biological child may accompany the child during the visit providing that parent has custody of the child and the student and other biological parent are not going through a divorce, have not gone through a bitter divorce, and there is no restraining order against either parent. The child s birth certificate must be presented at each visit to prove the accompanying parent and the student are the child s biological parents. Step-children Child s legal guardian Step- or half- brothers and sisters that are accompanied by the biological parent of both them and the student Nieces and nephews that are 16 years of age or younger Uncles and aunts that are the biological brother or sister of one of the student s biological parents Family members who are the current and legal spouse of the student s biological parent, biological grandparent, biological brother or sister, or biological uncle or aunt providing they bring proof of marriage to each visit. All visitors with exception of the student s children, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews must be at least age 18, must complete the attached visitation agreement, and must be willing to sign a liability release prior to arriving for the first visit. Parents or legal guardians of the student s children, brothers or sisters, or brother s or sister s children that are under age 18 must complete the attached visitation agreement and must be willing to sign a liability release for the minor prior to the minor s first visit. The student s brothers and sisters that are under age 18 must be accompanied by their parent or another approved family member that is at least age 18. The student s children under age 18 must be accompanied by the child s parent by another approved family member that is at least age 18. Visitation schedule Visitations are Fridays from 6:45 PM to 8:45 PM for male students. Visitations for female students are Fridays from 7:15 PM to 9:15 PM. A maximum of 16 families will be permitted to visit at one visitation time, eight for males and eight for females. You must arrive 30 minutes prior to the scheduled visitation time (6:15 PM for male student visits and 6:45 PM for female student visits). Failure to be on time will result in your visitation being denied. You will be expected to depart from your visit at the scheduled time. Scheduling a visit

2 Visitors over 18 who have pledged to become a student sponsor and are maintaining a monthly sponsorship commitment to Teen Challenge will be given priority visitation status. As an active student sponsor, should you desire to schedule a visit, you must call our office at or between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM on the Thursday prior to your visit. When prompted you should press 311 for the operator. Calls placed after 12:00 PM will not be received. We take care to assure that we are available during this time; however, a situation may occasionally occur that will require our absence from the phone for a few minutes. Therefore, if you receive a voic message you should wait a few minutes and call again. Leaving a message on our voic will not automatically approve your visitation, so it is necessary that you speak directly with the staff in charge of scheduling. If you have chosen not to become a student sponsor or have failed to follow up on your student sponsorship commitment you will be permitted to visit providing space is available after priority visitors have been scheduled. To schedule a visit you may call on the Thursday afternoon prior to your visit between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM and when prompted press 315 for the Program Director. The Director will receive your call providing he is available. Visitor donations As you are probably aware, we do not participate in any federal or state food assistance program. Therefore, we will be requesting your help in a small way during each visit. When you place your call to schedule a visit, you will be given a small list of food items that you will be asked to bring with you on the day of each visit. The food will be received by staff on duty and transported to our food storage area for cafeteria use or as the Food Services Supervisor determines is needed. You may wish to donate a gift card from Wal-Mart or Sam s Club instead of food. The card will then be used to purchase needed food items, etc. The card must represent the cost of the requested food items or more. Remember, it is your loved one that we are feeding. During the visit Upon arriving, you must report directly to the administration office and sign in. Visitation with students fewer than 8 months in tenure will be closely monitored and several students are randomly selected for a full body search before and after each visit. You should, therefore, take extra precaution that you do not participate in bringing unapproved mail, obscene reading material, weapons, illegal drugs, tobacco products, contraband, or any other unapproved items to the student or attempt to take unapproved items off campus for him/her or any other student. To do so will result in the revocation of your visitation privileges and the student s probable dismissal from the program. We will contact the proper authorities and demand the prosecution of individuals who bring illegal drugs onto our campus. Any and all items (including money, tapes, books, etc.) intended for your loved one will be received at the beginning of your visit, carefully inspected, and given to him/her by staff following the visit. Letters or any other types of written message from unapproved persons (girlfriends, boyfriends, etc.) are not permitted; therefore, you may not bring these for the student to read during the visit. Any money received that is intended for the student s personal account will be placed into his/her account in accordance with program policies. Money given for or mailed to a student for his/her personal account must be in the form of cash or a money order only. Money orders must be made out to the student. Personal checks intended for the student s personal account will be refused. During your visit, you must remain at your assigned visitation site. Children age three and over must remain seated and ALL children must be at your side at all times. You must refrain from visiting or communicating with any other student while on campus.

3 Ladies must dress modestly and with propriety. Braless attire, low cut dress or blouse with part of the breast exposed, tight pants, short shorts, or short dresses, etc., are prohibited. Any visitor who violates this policy will be denied the visit. It is unfortunate that there are dysfunctional family members who would attempt to smuggle drugs and/or alcohol onto our campus if given the opportunity. To prevent this from happening we must therefore prohibit food or drinks of any kind from being brought to our students during visitations. Mailing packages and letters Packages and letters must be mailed to Appalachian Teen Challenge, Inc., 1651 Unity Road, Princeton, WV The student s name must be clearly legible on the front of the package and letter. Phone calls Each student is allowed one 10-minute phone call per week to immediate family members after completing at least 30 days of the program. Students with biological children under the age of 16 will be permitted another five-minute phone call each week to the legal guardian of the student s children after completing at least 14 days of the program. As you can imagine, our staff have plenty to do; therefore, we will accept emergency calls only from immediate family members. An emergency call will be defined as the death or serious illness/accident requiring hospitalization of the mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, or child of the student receiving the message. If the staff receives your call and it is not an emergency, that call will be considered the student s allotted weekly call; therefore, you must be sure that the call is an emergency. Medical emergency In the event that you need to notify your loved one of a medical emergency involving an immediate family member of the student, you may do so by calling (304) This number will only accept medical emergency notifications as all other calls that are not considered to be a medical emergency will not be received, forwarded to the student, or returned. You must leave a clear and precise message on the recorder describing the emergency and the name of the individual who has been critically injured or experienced a sudden life-threatening injury. Please include the name of the student to be notified as well as your return phone number. A staff person will return your call as soon as possible. Personal note We have learned much during our many years of working with persons experiencing life-controlling problems. We know that you desire to see your loved one become completely well and functional; therefore, we suggest that you work with us in every way to assure the best possible chance of your loved one s full recovery. We also realize that our policies are tough, however, you should realize that we work with individuals that when given and inch will take a mile and who until God changes them are very skilled at manipulation. Unfortunately, some of them come from families that are just as skilled. So to assure that we are on top of things we must require that all families follow the same policies and procedures. In many and perhaps most families with a troubled individual, co-dependency and/or an enabling attitude exist. Co-dependency and enabling are attitudes family members often develop in their attempts to make their loved one well. In doing so, they believe themselves to be the only person who understands the troubled individual. The enabler then tries to rescue their loved one from their

4 problems and responsibilities rather then require them to face their problems and responsibilities. The individual needing the help then manipulates the helper, the helper becomes an enabler, co-dependency develops, and both individuals are adversely affected. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you release your loved one into our care and allow us to help him/her with their problems. At Teen Challenge we will not enable him/her. We will, however, require that they stop their manipulative behavior and learn to accept responsibility for their problems and actions: the only way he/she will ever become spiritually and physically well, emotionally mature, and a productive member of society. We further suggest that you refrain from feeling guilty because you cannot visit him/her more frequently than permitted. If you do experience guilt and fear you may have a co-dependency problem. Let s face it he/she needs to grow up, and both of you can use the break. We have a program that works, and we ask that you be supportive of Teen Challenge policies and procedures in every way. Your loved one is being given the tools to function normally in society, which includes extensive Biblical training. You may possibly have doctrinal views that differ from those of Teen Challenge, and we respect that; however, I strongly recommend that you not engage in a debate of those differences with the student. Debating doctrinal differences will do nothing but create confusion, which will only hinder your loved one s continued success in overcoming his/her lifecontrolling problems. An angry mother once called questioning why we had abused her son while he was a student in our program. He was only here for one week, decided he did not want to deal with his problems, and left to return home. Amazingly, the day before his enrollment, his mother had shared with us that her son was a manipulator and chronic liar, a trait that all addicts carry. Of course, we had not abused her son, but in only one week she had forgotten about his lying problem prior to coming to Teen Challenge. Apparently, this was the easiest way for her to deal with his failure. In order to manipulate his way back into her home the student of course blamed us. As you know, it is the nature of dysfunctional persons to blame someone else. We caution you, therefore, to refrain from placing the blame or passing judgment on Teen Challenge or anyone else should your loved one fail to complete the program for any reason. His/her false accusations will affect us very little, if any at all, but are sure to affect you and your loved one in an adverse way. In the end you are the ones who will suffer. You should also know that a student and his/her family s attitude after leaving the program has much to do with our decision as to whether or not the individual qualifies for readmission once he/she hits rock bottom, admits that he/she was the one in error instead of Teen Challenge, and requests readmission. As you know, our students, by state law, are consenting adults, even though they didn t act like adults prior to coming to Teen Challenge. The law requires us to protect the student s confidentiality; therefore, we can only discuss a student s progress with his/her mother, father, wife or husband when the student is physically present. We will be happy to schedule a conference with you and your loved one providing you have cooperated with the program policies and procedures in every way, including student sponsorship. You may, therefore, call our office and we will be happy to schedule a meeting with you during a weekday providing the student agrees to do so. Again, we realize that our policies are tough; however, you must understand that your loved one s life depends on all of us working together. Occasionally, but not often, ungrateful family members will express discontentment over being asked to help Teen Challenge while we help their loved one. I did not get my loved one into their mess, and I don t think I should be asked to help them get out of it, some have said. We understand their frustrations, but we, too, had nothing to do with helping make a mess of their loved one s life; but, we were willing to help them straighten out the mess. All we asked is that they do their small part as a family member. We look forward to helping your loved one become a whole person, and we look forward to meeting you. Please complete all sections of the attached family visitation agreement to verify that you have

5 thoroughly read this letter and that you understand your responsibilities as an approved family member. Also on this form you will indicate your student sponsorship status. Once we have received your completed form you will be placed on our approved visitor list. Yours in Christ, James M. Nickels Executive Director

6 FAMILY VISITATION AGREEMENT Prior to being approved for phone calls, visits, or letter writing privileges with your loved one you must complete and return this form to our office. You must complete all requested information and sign and date where applicable. If any part of this form is incomplete, the entire form will be voided and not be processed. We will not accept faxed or ed documents. Mail your form to: Appalachian Teen Challenge, Inc., 1651 Unity Road, Princeton, WV Please initial this line after you have thoroughly read the attached visitor s manual. I verify that I am (please print your name) (please print the student s first and last name) (Please indicate your relationship to the student) (If you wrote uncle or aunt please answer this question.) Are you the biological brother or sister of the student s biological mother or father? By signing below you do hereby agree to follow the established policies, guidelines, suggestions, and procedures of Appalachian Teen Challenge, Inc. Your printed name Mailing address City State/Zip Phone - - Your signature Date STUDENT SPONSORSHIP The Student Sponsorship portion of this agreement only needs to be completed by adults age 18 and older. Children under 18 do not need to complete this portion. Please check here if you are age 18 or older: We need your help to care for your loved one and you can do so by becoming a student sponsor. Teen Challenge depends entirely on donations from family members, community contributors, and churches to cover the cost of caring for your loved one. To house, feed, and instruct your loved one alone will cost Teen Challenge approximately $1, per month, which totals $18, for 12 months of training. Appalachian Teen Challenge is a non-profit 501-C-3 organization and does not receive government support in any form for the services we provide. Your help, therefore, is necessary. Family members who pledge their monthly sponsorship will be given priority visitation status. You must check one of the following. If left unchecked, the form will be considered incomplete and will not be processed. Please indicate the monthly amount you wish to pledge:

7 1500 $1000 $750 $500 $300 $200 $150 $100 $50 100% 67% 50% 33% 20% 13% 10% 7% 3% Please check one: $25 $15 2% 1% $ Other I have checked one of the above because I am happy to help my loved one. I do not wish to help with the expenses of caring for my loved one. The amount I checked is the total combined amount my spouse and I wish to give each month. VISITATION LIABILITY RELEASE I do hereby state that I have requested permission to visit my family member on the campus of the Appalachian Teen Challenge, Inc., hereafter stated ATCI. By signing below, I am releasing the ATCI, its staff, its Board of Directors, and its insurance carrier of any and all liability claims, civil, medical, or otherwise, should I or any of my children or the children of which I am the legal guardian become ill or involved in any type of accident for any reason while on ATCI property. I further agree to be fully responsible for any and all medical costs should I or any of my children or any children of whom I am the legal guardian become injured or ill at any time while on the ATCI campus. Your signature Your printed name Witness signature (Must be age 18 or over) Witness printed name Witness mailing address Street or box City State Zip How are you related to the person whose signature you are witnessing? Before submitting this form please check it thoroughly to assure that you have completed every part of it. If any part is left incomplete you will be informed that it could not be processed when you call for your first visit. Your request to visit will then be denied and your loved one will be unable to correspond with you via mail or phone until you have resubmitted another form that is completed. Revised 04/10/2014