Real Life Setting
Live in the “Real World”
Our students experience the joys and challenges of everyday living. Living in homes nestled within the historic “Old Town” section of this city, attending college or community college, and working, volunteering, and engaging in social and recreational activities, students experience the challenges of everyday life within this context of “real-life.”
Within this context, the Calo Young Adults student participates in physical, health, wellness and recreational activities as well as psychoeducational groups in a variety of areas including mindfulness, social skills, technology use regulation, interpersonal relationships, life competencies, such as financial skills and grocery shopping, as well as career and work exploration.
The structure at Calo Young Adults is dynamically modified with various levels of support based on each student’s needs. The progression from the initial assessment and orientation period at Calo Young Adults leads to an emphasis on core skills acquisition followed by increasing levels of independence in the transition readiness phase, where a student is capable of living independently.
Recreation
What do Calo Young Adults students do for fun? Much of the evening and weekend programming is social and recreational in nature. Choices and availability change from time to time, but examples of activities that have occurred fairly often (and depend on the season/weather) include things like bowling, swimming, going to the movies, and attending social gatherings arranged by Calo Young Adults students. Other popular events have included things like skiing, rock climbing, and paintballing. On special occasions trips to Six Flags, Kings Dominion, Hershey Park, Washington D.C., historical sites, and Major League Baseball are planned. These larger trips typically occur between 2 and 4 times per year.
In addition to Calo Young Adults sponsored social and recreational events, students are encouraged to seek out their own entertainment. The Winchester area is rich with activities, ranging from historic to outdoor to the arts (students sometimes take advantage of the shows, concerts, and recitals that are generated by Shenandoah University’s Conservatory). For students interested in fitness and sports, we provide membership to Body Renew Fitness, a state-of-the-art athletic facility, offers a variety of activities including weight training, cardiovascular equipment, aerobic classes, spinning, and personal training. There are also opportunities to access the indoor rock wall as well as arenas for organized sports.
Winchester, Virginia
Sitting at the northernmost corner of Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester offers visitors the chance to explore historical sites, museums, vineyards, farmers’ markets, and tree-lined Old Town streets once wandered by the likes of George Washington and Stonewall Jackson. The fruitful fields of the surrounding Frederick County have earned the area the title “apple capital of the world,” with the city hosting the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival annually for almost a century.
Here is a wonderful video by Robert Peak Design which captures the essence of Winchester. Our campus is featured in the charming footage of the historic neighborhood of Old Town Winchester. The lovely Wyndham George Washington Hotel, which offers a discounted rate to our visiting guests is just blocks from our campus, and just steps from the thriving pedestrian shopping mall rich with coffee shops, boutiques, a variety of restaurants, and performing venues. Also featured in the film is Shenandoah University, where many of our students are enrolled in college.
To learn more about all that our community has to offer, www.VisitWinchesterVA.com is an excellent place to start.
What Others Say About Us
Educational Consultants
Educational consultants are skilled professionals who provide counseling to help students and families choose a school or program that is a good personal match: one that will foster that student’s academic, social, and emotional growth. Educational consultants can provide the student and family with firsthand knowledge of hundreds of educational, therapeutic and transitional program opportunities.
We work collaboratively with many of the world’s top educational consultants who recognize our longevity, clinical acumen and specialty in the treatment challenges specific to emerging adults. They trust us to provide the highest level of care to their families seeking a clinically rigorous transitional program in a real life setting. Here’s what just a few have to say:
Calo Young Adults sets the standard for quality clinical care among emerging adult programs. Their therapist to client ratio at Calo Young Adults is one of the best among therapeutic programs. It is my first referral choice whenever I have a client with intensive clinical issues.
Calo Young Adults offers a unique blend of clinical support and real world experience in a charming East coast, Mid-Atlantic town. It is a great place for many of my clients to “get a life” while they are getting better.
Calo Young Adults is a program that is dedicated to helping young adults who have clinical challenges and need professional help during their journey of growth. Calo Young Adults has worked with a number of my clients, male and female, who wanted to be in an environment that did not make them feel that they were in a clinical setting. My clients were overjoyed that they could live in a community like anyone else and have the privacy and support and use of the opportunities around them: school, work or volunteer and have intensive therapy.
If we can help you locate an independent educational consultant please contact our Admissions Office or visit the Independent Educational Consultants Association website.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is the job of Student Life to provide the Clinical team with accurate, daily and up to date information about how students are doing. Are they making progress with functional life skills? Are they avoiding certain tasks in the house? Is there a noticeable difference in a targeted behavior? Armed with this information, the clinicians make judgments regarding how treatment should proceed.
Affect Regulation
Executive Functioning
Anxiety Management
Recovery – Substance Related and Non-Substance Related
Because all of our students struggle in one or more of these areas, groups sessions are specifically designed to encourage them to work together with peers who have common challenges. Group work also leads students to greater insight into how they present to others, and as a result, encourages them to practice new behaviors and to receive constructive feedback from both group members and a group leader.
last modified: June 13th, 2017