Mission Statement: Sharing the love of Jesus Christ, Marygrove provides a safe home, compassionate care, and high-quality mental health services to children who have experienced significant trauma, to restore their childhood, and equip them for their future.
Marygrove has a rich history of more than 170 years caring for children, teens and young adults—offering a compassionate, safe and healing environment. The children and adolescents who come to Marygrove have endured multiple failed placements at other organizations, cycled through foster homes, or even survived failed adoptions. Many come from abusive, violent, and severely disruptive family situations; and, in a few instances, are discharged from psychiatric hospitals directly to Marygrove. The emotional toll a severely dysfunctional and aberrant family can have on a child cannot be underestimated. Where nurturing, love, and security are necessary for stable psychological and emotional growth, our children have experienced the neglect of primal needs. They have become victims, due to their environments, and have developed profound emotional, detachment and trust issues manifesting as just the tip of what lies below. Most of our youth are diagnosed with behavioral and psychiatric disorders as a result of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and other trauma. Without Marygrove, most of our children would have few, if any, alternatives for housing and face life on the street, in prison, or in an institution.
The children and young adults at Marygrove live and grow in a safe, nurturing environment, and have opportunity to heal in a stable, family-like setting. Professional caregivers provide compassion, encouragement, and structure while therapists provide individualized treatment plans and counseling to help each child overcome personal obstacles and establish responsible, attainable goals for the short and long-term future.
As one of the largest therapeutic residential treatment programs in Missouri, Marygrove is a new beginning for the 140 children and young adults who call our campus their home. The children at Marygrove have little experience being in a safe, caring
home. Many arrive with immediate needs, including clean clothes, food and medical treatment. They receive these things in addition to the care of round-the-clock staff and therapeutic treatment from licensed, Masters-level therapists. When they arrive, few kids trust us; they struggle to trust they will have a bed, a meal, clean clothes, or safety. Each child comes with a heartbreaking personal story. Marygrove enriches the lives of hundreds of young people each year, ages birth-21, through a broad continuum of residential and community-based programming and wraparound services, including therapeutic residential treatment and foster care, transitional and independent living, special education and recreational therapy, family counseling, and parenting education.
Trauma-informed care is the foundation of all Marygrove treatment. Through this approach, Marygrove helps mitigate adverse childhood experiences while preventing future homelessness and trauma. Using a Positive Youth Development framework, our youth are consistently supported in identifying their strengths and using their skills toward personal growth, development, and success.
As part of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, we participate in the Annual Catholic Appeal.
