ABOUT TEEN CHALLENGE OF PHILADELPHIA MEN’S HOME
Teen Challenge is a national, nonprofit network of faith-based rehabilitation programs for people of all ages, founded by the Reverend David Wilkerson in New York in 1958. Located in a family home on a pretty, leafy street in the Germantown neighborhood of northern Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Men’s Home is an induction center providing the first four months of treatment on the program’s 10- to 14-month residential Christian discipleship program for men struggling with problematic substance use and other life-controlling problems. According to a page operated by Pennsylvania Adult and Teen Challenge, clients are transferred to a Teen Challenge facility in Rehrersburg for the last 10 months of treatment.
Other Teen Challenge locations in Pennsylvania include a women’s home in Philadelphia and a center in Western Pennsylvania.
TREATMENT & ASSESSMENT
Only the first four or five months of treatment — the induction phase — are completed at this facility. During this stage of treatment, residents participate in what Teen Challenge terms a “spiritual boot camp.” The program includes group study classes that teach Biblical principles as well as an individual study program, in which each resident works with a mentor, progressing through a tailored program that might include memorizing scripture, studying topical issues, and/or completing reading assignments, as well as figuring out how to apply these practices to one’s own life. Residents also complete a state-licensed GED program, if they didn’t finish high school, and receive job training and life-skills training, including financial management sessions.
Once they transfer to Rehrersburg, residents participate in an adapted version of the 12-step program, with added Bible study and community service.
STAFF CREDENTIALS
There is currently no information provided by the Teen Challenge of Philadelphia Men’s Home facility regarding its treatment staff, however, the single individual polled by Best-rehabs.com to date gave the facility four out of five stars for its staff’s level of training and experience.
ACCOMMODATIONS & AMENITIES
The Philadelphia Men’s Center is home to approximately 40 men at a time, and the Rehrersburg center can accommodate up to 200 individuals at a time. The single individual polled by Best-rehabs.com to date gave the facility five stars for its accommodations and meals/nutrition and four stars for its cleanliness and its exercise and leisure offerings.
WHAT ALUMNI SAY
Best-rehabs.com has not yet received any reviews directly from alumni of this facility, and secondary sites yielded mostly positive coverage at the time of this writing: a 4.8-star average rating based on 51 reviews on Facebook (where the center can manage its own page), and a single three-star rating on Google.[1] [2] The reviewers repeatedly credited the facility with changing or even saving their lives: “This place changed my life!! Thank you… for never giving up on me..thank you and I love you guys and miss you!!” R.O. wrote in a representative review on Facebook.
WHAT FRIENDS & FAMILY SAY
The single individual polled by Best-rehabs.com to date would recommend the Teen Challenge of Philadelphia Men’s Home. “It is a long enough program to actually work,” they wrote, stressing that the program was “very religious” and “strict in good way.” They gave the facility five stars for its treatment effectiveness, four stars for its ability to treat co-occurring disorders, three stars for its counseling options and its family participation, and two stars for its holistic offerings.
FINANCING
There is a fee for treatment, though Teen Challenge of Pennsylvania does not specify what it is at the time of this writing. The organization has a relationship with a medical loans company to increase the accessibility of treatment.
[1] [Source]
[2] [Source]