Success Stories

It has been many years since I attended Cross Creek Manor back in 1994 when I was a 13 year old girl but I still look back at that time as one of the best experiences of my life. Before entering Cross Creek Manor I had no direction, no identity, and had a damaged relationship with my parents.

Cross Creek helped mold the person I am today by giving me the tools to help find my unique identity, it challenged me to become a better person, and it helped me believe that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.

Today I am a 29 year old woman who has graduated college, pursued an MBA, and now am currently in medical school planning to become a doctor. I am blessed with amazing relationships in my life and am still very close to my parents.

I would recommend Cross Creek Manor to any parent with a child who is struggling because it can truly change their lives. The program can be emotionally demanding and challenging but the skill learned during this time in their life is priceless.

Sincerely, Michele Burklund

Another Life Saved!

I take the privilege in writing this letter to you finally. My daughter has now been home over four years. She will be twenty two this year. Our family could not be closer. We suffered a long time ago. I still suffer today. Almost every child my daughter hung out with before we sent her to Cross Creek is dead. Another childhood friend sent within days of her but this child failed to complete the program was another victim to death most recently. I realize if my daughter had not been with you…our lives would be different today.

My daughter once never attending school, graduated high school Cross Creek with her A’s and B’s. She has high self-esteem. She now works for 2 Oral & Maxillofacial doctors as a surgical assistant. She is also a photographer for a club. The skills we learned and continue to use as family have enriched our lives personally and professionally. Though releasing our daughter to you for what felt like eternity of almost two and a half years to some felt wrong. We felt not doing anything was wrong.

So here is what I have learned.

Based on results you have exactly what you have intended. We have a beautiful loving family.

After graduation I thought it was important through our experience to “pay it forward”. My daughter did not feel the same way so she was not so eager to run back. Once she left the program she wanted to somewhat feel normal and disassociate. She was about to turn 18. She was glad we had done what we did but she felt once she had graduated high school we should have pulled her. We had never wavered on the importance of her completing her program to fruition for accomplishment and self-esteem.

For years I have said I would write to support your program as a referral. I have failed you and I apologize. Many great reasons but excuses nonetheless. Today I take the time. One of my child’s old dearest friends who walked into Cross Creek with her but he did not complete the program died recently. She visits his gravesite often on her lunch breaks and talks to him. His mother is there daily. I can’t make it back. You truly are who your friends are. I am blessed our daughter found new relationships and moved forward. In two years I have gone to five funerals related to drugs. One of those deaths includes a parent after her son’s death.

My brother would took say love them when you are with them pray for them when you are not..

My daughter returned most recently to Cross creek as a return graduate to share. It was just before the holiday. I received the best gift a parent could ever hope for. She called me excitedly and told me that this could be my moment if I wanted to take it. She wanted to thank us for sending her there. After sitting in a different chair she wanted to share her gratitude and thank us for keeping her there until the very end.

Priceless!

Cross Creek is life saving and impressionable.

One of my greatest memories is a group of about 50 teens laughing, dancing a two-step-not at risk- enjoying life. A two-step. Still turning their heads to see if their parents were watching. Or in many cases right by their sides dancing right with them. These kids did not listen to country music. But they were happy. They were dissecting words to their songs and teaching us as parents why and what we should listen for..our kids are still teaching us. So we are finding as they mature their input now is also requested. It’s cool. A valuable lesson is they have value to offer.

Our kids are amazing. They may be younger but they are human. Listen. We have a lot to learn from each other.

When We Let Them In and We Become that Family, Happiness and the Love truly Emerges and the Good Life Begins.

Garth, we are who we are because of you!

Thank you.

Most Sincerely,
Corey Wyman

The Ricks and their daughters!

I would like to recommend the Cross Creek programs to any parent who has an out of control child. Our experience began 5 years ago. We have a daughter who began running away from home. She was out of control and hanging out with other children who were using drugs and alcohol. We found out that she was about to run away again and this time she was planning to go to the state of Washington to join a witchcraft cult. We didn’t know where to turn. We talked to other people who had sent their children to Cross Creek and they had very good results.

We sent Danielle and have never regretted our decision. She graduated the program on February 29, 2004. She has come so far. Danielle is actually our grand daughter. We have had legal custody of her and her little sister for over 10 years. Her parents are both drug addicts and she was very resentful that we stepped in to help her and her sister. Since being in the program she has learned that being a victim of her parents caused her to go through uncontrollable depression, anger and deceit.

While in the program, Danielle asked us to adopt her and her sister. We are about to go to court to do that. She is very appreciative of what we’ve done for her. She tells us that we helped to save her life by sending her to Cross Creek. Little did we know that she had already tried to kill herself three times when she was at home? She had been under the care of a psychologist, but because of the California state laws, this therapist could not tell us what was really going on with Danielle. Even she didn’t know that Danielle had become a cutter three years before she was sent to Cross Creek.

We agree with Danielle and truly believe that this program saved her life. She is now a very wonderful nineteen-year-old. She started the first ever Teen Alanon group at Cross Creek. She is standing in her integrity and is a very accountable young lady.

If we had to make a choice to send her sister to a program, we would not hesitate to choose Cross Creek Manor. I have never seen anything at the Cross Creek facility that wasn’t absolutely appropriate. I have staffed a seminar with Cross Creek children and was amazed at how much they seemed to appreciate the help they were getting at the school. Our daughter has been home for almost three years and she has never told us anything negative about this program. I’ve asked her if she ever saw any abuse and she said that was ridiculous.

I highly recommend the programs at Cross Creek for any child. It has saved so many children. The most important thing that this program does is to provide seminars for parents. It is very important that the parents learn the same skills that their children learn. That way everyone is on the same page when the child comes home. This program is very unique in that it includes the whole family. I’ve seen divorced parents who never talked to each other come together as they completed the parent seminars. I am so committed to this program that I have staffed nine parent seminars, volunteering more than 600 hours in the last five years. I am also a family support group leader for the San Jose Support Group. I don’t think any other program offers these valuable tools for the parents.

If you would like to contact me in person, please feel free to call me at (408) 244-6757. My email address is ***@earthlink.net

Sincerely,

JoAnn Ricks
Cross Creek Parent
Retired High School English Teacher

The problem really began in her pre-teen years, the challenging of authority and failure to account for personal behavior. We were told that she would probably grow out of it eventually and just to sit tight and maintain strict standards. But after four years of a strict boarding school the problem grew worse. Our daughter was faced with expulsion from her school for her practices of undermining the school authorities, her teachers and her peers. While she was home on break, public scenes became routine as did calls for help to the police department. This problem was too big for us as our daughter had somewhere along the way lost respect for her parents and her teachers. Our daughter is currently in the Program and has undergone considerably change. . . especially in the way she relates to her peers and authority figures. Each student in the Program is asked to follow the instructions given to them, make their beds and participate in the activities and school work assigned to them. They are rewarded favorably for complying and lose points if the tasks are not performed. But beyond compliance is the encouragement for acting out positively toward their peers, simply for the sake of doing a nice thing for someone. She now writes “I’m just beginning to realize how much love my parents have given me and how much I’ve taken for granted”.

What we can say today is that the Program has given her a controlled but loving and supportive environment that allows her to focus on herself, her behavior and the results of her behavior. The Program is also allowing us to get on with our lives and to heal together as a whole family. We look forward to the day our daughter graduates and comes home again to start a new life of love and respect for one another.

- Parents of a Student

Before I came to the Program I was into substance abuse, running away and being defiant. I was not happy, and if I would have stayed that way for a while longer I know I would have ended my existence.

I have a new respect for what I have now. I will treat my mom with respect now, not like trash, as I once did. Yes, there are times when things will go wrong or when we do not agree, but there is never going to be a ‘perfect’ family. This experience has helped prepare me for appreciating my family at home. This place has made me a much stronger person, and I am grateful for that.

For all the parents out there that care enough about their kids to give then a new life and chance. . . Thank You!

- Graduate

My daughter is a graduate of the Program, and it saved her life. Sending my daughter to the Program was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. The consequences of NOT sending her were too terrible to even think about. After much research I chose this program because they would treat my daughter with a great deal of love and respect. It was highly structured; her choices created her results. In order for her to ‘move up the levels’ she had to prove herself to the staff and to her peers. It turned out that is was much more difficult to fool her peers than to fool the staff. They also have parent seminars. This isn’t a program to ‘fix’ your child. This is a program that heals the whole family, including yourself. The Program deals with personal change, internalized change. This is a program that encourages change through the love and support of peers and staff alike but does not happen overnight. The patterns and habits of bad choices did not happen overnight either.

My daughter graduated over 2 years ago and is doing great. Our family operates much differently now than it had before. We treat each other with respect.

- Mother of a Student