Parents F.A.Q.
The first thing you do is call the police to alert them your child has run away. When they find your teen, they will call you and then us. Together, we’ll talk about the situation and possible solutions. If circumstances prevent your child from returning home that night, we have a network of trained and licensed Host Homes who can keep your child safe overnight.
Call us. We’ve been doing this work for 40 years, and we’ve seen and heard a lot. A counselor will talk with you to find out what you need. And if we can’t help directly, we have a lot of connections to people who can.
Yes. You don’t have to be in a crisis situation to ask for help. Sometimes, you just need an outside person to help you see the situation and provide some possible solutions. We provide family counseling on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and will meet at your home or our office, or talk with you over the phone. If your child has run away or if you’ve thrown them out of the house, call the police first, then PATH at 2-1-1. They will call us, and we’ll all meet together.
They are completely safe. All of our Host families are trained and state licensed. We monitor them on a continual basis, and they never fail to meet expectations. Access to a Host Home is only through one of our crisis counselors. We take your child to and from the Host Home.
There are lots of options. First, our counselors can work with your family on your schedule. We can meet at various locations, and our schedules are flexible. We can connect you to lots of resources, too, and because of our connections, we can help you navigate the system quickly.
The ONLY cost is the 4-hour Parents Forever course, which is $125, and there are a limited number of partial scholarships available. There is NO cost for ANY other service at Project Oz.
Our primary work is with young people ages 10-22. We also work with their parents, step-parents, siblings, and others who are part of the household dynamics.
Our counseling sessions are generally 1 hour each. We can provide weekly or bi-weekly counseling to you and/or your family for up to 3 months. This provides time for you to learn and practice skills, begin to rebuild family bonds, and connect to long-term services if you want them.
We encourage your child to tell you right away if they are seeing our counselors. By law, we can talk with them 5 times before they need parental permission. Our in-school services strive for 1 meeting every week or two, and our homeless and crisis services staff can meet weekly, or more or less often as circumstances demand.
Our drug prevention classes teach the FACTS about what happens to your brain, your body, and to your mindset when you use alcohol and other drugs. In addition to teaching several strategies for avoiding drug involvement, we have time to practice critical skills through role playing. This helps your child get comfortable with the skills they need to resist the pressure to use drugs, as well as the facts that will help them make safe decisions.
All of our staff have a minimum of 40 hours of basic skills training, at least 10 hours of additional training every year, most staff have bachelor’s degrees and many staff have master’s degrees and other advanced certifications. Each staff member has a certification in their field of expertise, whether it is counseling or teaching.
