Testimonials
Enthusiasm is Catching... Dylan's Story
"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them."
- Ralph Nichols
It doesn’t take long to realize that Dylan’s enthusiasm will leave a lasting effect upon everyone he meets. It’s in the way he looks at you straight in the eye and in the way his hands move as he describes the changes he has made. It is especially in the way he talks, there is an excited, enthusiastic intent behind every word. He has so many people he wants to thank and so many things he wants to say. The young man who came to Epworth in August of 2007 said, “It has been a real, long journey. I’ve had to deal with a lot of things. A lot of things have gone wrong and a lot of things have gone good.”
The children at Epworth Village who take part in the agency’s family-centered residential treatment portion of the program know what is expected of them up front. They know that Epworth has a five-level behavioral tracking system. “I’ve had my level four,” Dylan said, adding, “and I’ve had my Level 1 too.”
However, Dylan’s Level 1 days are just a memory now. Though he recalls what brought him to Epworth, he said he realizes there has been a change deep inside of him. “I was being oppositional, unsafe and I wasn’t following my mom’s directives. I was not following my caseworker either. I would cuss her out and I feel really bad about that now.”
Recognizing what’s right and wrong is the foundation of the Epworth Village program. This doesn’t happen overnight, but it happens with the commitment and consistency of staff members from all three areas of the program; family-centered therapy, life skills training and education. Dylan started his journey at Blatchford Residential Treatment Center. He was there for a period of about two and a half months.
“Then I came to Slife Treatment Group Home and everyone started cracking down. There was more staff to client ratio. I thought that I could just do whatever I wanted. I was ‘Mr. Big Man’ going to a treatment group home. But, it wasn’t like that. Christy Osentowski, the Unit Manager at Slife really started cracking down on me. Not that it was a bad thing, it was an awesome thing. She gave us a lot more consequences and I think that helped. . . . My primary, Krista Peterson was a big help. She has probably been the biggest help. I want her to know how much she helped me because she has done an awesome job encouraging me.”
“My therapist, Andy Marquart, he was the best therapist I’ve ever had. I’ve never opened up to a therapist as much as I did with him. He knew right how to get in there and tell me how it is. Everything was straight on with Andy he just helped me get along my way in life.”
“Also, in group therapy we worked on empathy with Michelle Lemke. That is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. We learned how to put ourselves in other places and think how they feel.”
At the school Dylan said, “All my Middle School teachers are good teachers. I mean they know what they are doing. Mr. McBride is a good joke teller and Mrs. Gibbs is a good joke teller too. She knows how to handle people. She is a nice lady. Since I’ve mainstreamed some classes, I miss Mr. Jensen too. And, Mrs. Hansen just gets right to the point and that’s a good thing too.”
Dylan said that now that he knows how to make good choices, he really wants to help his friends. “But, I don’t know what to tell my friends sometimes. It’s like you’ve got to find a way to help someone but then to be cool at the same time. I mean it can be really confusing. I’ve just been trying to do my best to help everyone.”
“The main thing that I can tell everybody is that a big part of your treatment is accepting things. You’ve always got to accept. If you can show that you can accept things then that is going to be a really big part of your treatment.”
For example, he said, “When you’re here and staff says ‘take out the garbage’ or ‘do this or that’ and you say, ‘Okay, yes ma’m,’ they are going to say, ‘Look at this kid, look what he’s doing, he can accept this. He’s not flipping out over the little things.’ That’s a big part of your treatment.”
Dylan is so excited to get back home and back to school. He’s so thankful that people have taken the time to listen to him and learn about what issues his family has been dealing with. Now it’s time for life to go on.
“When I go back home I want to get all A’s and B’s and I want to get my driver’s permit . . . My main dream in life is to make like a $100,000 and buy my mom a nice house and a nice car. I want to buy my mom a lot of stuff. She has done everything for me and I just disrespected her over it. She feeds me, clothes me and I know a lot of kids don’t think about it, but I have seriously been thinking about it, I’m going to repay her back somehow.”
Dylan, whether you believe it or not, you already have made your mom proud and everyone here at Epworth too, by believing in yourself and believing in the positive path you are choosing to head on in life. Keep up the good work mister! We believe in you!