Our Programs

Perseus House gives traumatized, troubled, and/or youth with mental health needs the social, emotional, and educational skills they need to find a new way forward.

Behavior is the only thing a young person can control when they want to make a change. They don’t have money, position, or power.

That’s why some youth respond to family, community, peer, or self-imposed pressures by acting out.

When their actions lead them into the court system, Perseus House offers a range of residential care options. We provide a safe, therapeutic environment for healing and recovery while they wait for a hearing or once they’re court-ordered into our care.

We’ve done this for thousands of youth referred from across Pennsylvania since 1971, with a documented 83% successful program completion rate. That’s well above state and national juvenile justice averages.

But real success comes in keeping school-aged youth out of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems altogether.

That’s why we also work locally with school and community partners to provide Erie’s youth with:

Delinquency Prevention – Engaging youth and families referred to us by schools to catch and address problems that might lead to chronic aggression.

Alternative Education – Helping regular and special education students who struggle with traditional learning environments stay on course academically and strengthen themselves emotionally.

Residential Alternatives – Keeping eligible court-ordered youth in their own homes and schools. We use active juvenile probation monitoring, along with social and emotional skills building.

Our treatment programs work to strengthen personal ethics, responsibility, and maturity. Growing healthy relationships, fulfilling legal obligations, and preparing for employment are also emphasized.

We do all of this through evidence-based practices that include:

Aggression Replacement Training (ART) – focused on anger management, social skills building, and moral reasoning; and

Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) – a six-stage relationship-building strategy to turn times of crisis into learning opportunities and long-term behavioral change.

ALL of our activity is guided by the Sanctuary® Model seven key commitments:

• Non-Violence
• Emotional Intelligence
• Social Learning
• Open Communication
• Democracy
• Social Responsibility
• Growth and Change

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