"Despite what all the pundits say, the most helpless feeling in the world is watching your child slowly descend into self-destruction under the banner of freedom and self-proclaimed wisdom. Try as you might with all the love you know how to muster, you just cannot reach out and connect with your child who "knows what I am doing. I'm OK." You have not failed as a parent yet. There is Alldredge.

Of all the gifts that the students and the staff at Alldredge bestow, the single best is the ability of a parent to understand his/her self, their child and their relationship. If that sounds simple, please understand that the process of receiving that gift is far from it. All parents should consider Alldredge to be Heaven sent.

Sorry if this is too dramatic, but it is heartfelt and I thought short would be better than long. Please give my best to Mike, Katie, Effie and everyone else. We are doing so much better despite a couple of slips! Hamilton comes home from the Southern France Youth Institute in mid-May and we will see what home has in store for him. We will keep you informed.

Thanks for everything!"

"Both of my kids went to Alldredge Academy. I will always be grateful for all I learned there. I know my kids learned so much also. I use some of the wisdom I picked up there often.

I think my daughter, Becky has sent about 5 kids to Alldredge too. Not that she caused the problem, but that she gave the parents the info and showed people what could be the results. Becky received her high school diploma there. The big thing she learned there at school is how to study and take a test better. She also learned it was for her. Becky finished her Landscaping degree at our community college with straight A's!! She is now going to Massage School in Gainesville full time and also working on landscape plans on the side for extra school funds. Now that's cool!

Josh is working as a welder's assistant. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. If I had not had the education on family matters at Alldredge, I might have forced Josh to stay at the Community College. Now that he is bored and tired of manual labor, HE has decided to go back to school. He is interested in Architecture at this point, but he's lucky he can choose anything he likes. He's so smart.

I keep in my prayers the kids, parents and families that are still suffering. I remember being there and how much it hurts. They need to know they are not alone and that was something I also learned at Alldredge.

Thank you for being there for us and continuing to care for us."

"Alldredge was the right fit for our daughter and family to heal and grow together. Making the decision to send her to Alldredge was very hard, but it was the most healing thing that we did for our daughter and family. We felt that we had exhausted all options in our area. The harder we tried to help, the more our daughter distanced herself from her family and over time we were all losing the ability to communicate with one another. At Alldredge, kids are given a sense of purpose something that is sadly lacking in our culture. Watching our daughter gain her confidence, sense of purpose and reconnecting with family has been amazing! Words simple can't express a parent's joy to see their child become the young man or woman that they were meant to be and having a measure of success with life decisions that they make!"

"The therapeutic support the parent receives makes a big difference. It allowed my daughter and I to make the changes we both needed to make and gave us the tools we needed to make those changes."

"My daughter loves life. She has plans and goals. She wants to go to college, she is looking ahead and wants to get married and have a family. She truly understands herself, and likes who she is."

"Alldredge was the right fit for our daughter and family to heal and grow together. Making the decision to send her to Alldredge was very hard, but it was the most healing thing that we did for our daughter and family. We felt that we had exhausted all options in our area. The harder we tried to help, the more our daughter distanced herself from her family and over time we were all losing the ability to communicate with one another. At Alldredge, kids are given a sense of purpose something that is sadly lacking in our culture. Watching our daughter gain her confidence, sense of purpose and reconnecting with family has been amazing! Words simple can't express a parent's joy to see their child become the young man or woman that they were meant to be and having a measure of success with life decisions that they make!"

"Transitions has been wonderful for my son. No longer do I get phone calls about every little thing that might be going wrong. Transitions looks at the whole person and the bigger picture. My family is forever thankful for their compassion and patience."

"We knew going in that finding a residential program to follow a wilderness placement for our son would be challenging. He did very well while there but we knew he needed the right balance of structure and independence to really auger sobriety and a return to academic progress in his life. TGI provided that synergy of community life, therapeutic support, and academic and creative challenge that helped Nick to put his life back on track. Although we only like to count one day at a time, we can say that the program at TGI has tapped into our son's gifts and talents and lifted our hopes for his future."