FEATURED NONPROFIT: Secret Harbor

Featured NW Nonprofit

Secret Harbor in Burlington, Washington

PAGE 16 | NW LIFE

Success comes at many different levels. For Secret Harbor, a non-profit organization that provides services and programs to help children and families in Skagit County, those successes come big and small.

From keeping a kid in the same school to uniting a foster child with a new home, Secret Harbor takes working with families to a unique level by making transitions into their communities easier and safer.

Secret Harbor began over 70 years ago as a group facility on Cypress Island, according to Brian Carroll, CEO of Secret Harbor. For 50 years, a small group of people worked with children all over the country. One of their most notable programs was their residential treatment program, which was successful at helping young boys return to their families and community. However, since their problems often stemmed from their living environment, some boys returned to the program after they faced the same issues at home.

"Our mission is saving children and youth in crisis by building healthy relationships, promoting support and developing connections to families and communities."

In order to better serve the kids and the community, Secret Harbor began a foster care program in 1992, which gave a place for young boys to go once their behaviors improved. Since then, that foster care program expanded for both boys and girls.

Safe Places To Succeed

A Unique Agency Serving an Unmet Need

Today, Secret Harbor offers multiple youth programs for parents to choose from, such as their foster care program, residential treatment, and in-home services.

"Teaching folks how to be successful in their own communities is what we try to do," Carroll explained. "I think the big change was in following our culture and caring for families."

The Garden at Secret Harbor

"Everybody says life's a journey. We're not the final solution, but we are a step along that road. We want to be part of that journey with them to teach people to become better and stronger and be able to come back into society with a fresh new start."

Secret Harbor doesn’t serve every child. Secret Harbor focuses its mission, resources and energy on a small number of young people who need intensive help because they have experienced serious trauma due to abuse and neglect.

Unless the problems of children are addressed, these problems grow into very big and much more expensive adult problems – which then tend to repeat from one generation to the next. Kids with troubled upbringings can be helped. An investment in a child’s well being today is a wise investment in the community’s long term health.

Every child needs caring adults in their lives. The attention, love and hard work of the Secret Harbor staff and its foster parents do, in fact, make the difference in a child’s life.

Learn more online...

lcl.bz/secretharbor

DONATE: SecretHarbor.org/donate-now