Excelsior is home to over 180 girls. The program not only gives them hope for a future and provides the tools to transition back to their families and communities, it also helps them to accomplish their goals. Many will testify that they would be in prison — or worse — had it not been for the care they received and safety they experienced at Excelsior.

Referrals for placement come from human service agencies, the courts, mental health, school districts, and families. Excelsior provides home, security, safety and structure to young girls who may have failed in many other treatment placements. Many teens placed with Excelsior have histories of self-destructive behavior, may have been abused or neglected, adopted then relinquished, or involved in gangs and cults.

Excelsior's Day Treatment Education Program accepts young women, ages 12 to18, who are behaviorally and emotionally able to reside safely in the community but who can not function in the public schools. The goal is to provide a fully developed alternative school program with comprehensive therapeutic treatment services for the students. The goal is to improve the students' ability to function within the public school setting. More than 40 girls annually participate in this special program. They arrive on our Aurora campus from throughout the 7-county metro-Denver area.

Aftercare Project supports the basic needs of 75 or more emancipated young women as they transition to independent survival. It is hard to be completely self sufficient at the age of 18. As all adults know the progression into independence is typically gradual and comes with a great deal of assistance from others: parents, mentors, teachers, and extended relatives. Often the clients who leave Excelsior really are "alone" so we fill that void with staff intervention and volunteer mentors.

Typically our emancipating clients use all of their savings to secure housing (including a deposit, first and last month's rent) leaving little money available for house hold items, furniture, cleaning supplies, groceries, kitchen necessities, toiletries and medical needs. Excelsior tries to assist with these expenses. Our Aftercare coordinator supervises each client’s transition and identifies individual needs.

Utilizing Excelsior’s Aftercare services, our young women can look toward sustainable economic self-sufficiency and self-reliance. It’s equally important to empower the girls with the knowledge of how to care for themselves successfully so they will not think they must rely on a partner. We want to keep the girls invested in their own futures. With this knowledge, Excelsior girls will have access to higher paying jobs with career mobility and stable housing and medical care.

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