Youth Opportunity Center
More than a beautiful 75-acre campus, and beyond accredited programs or diplomas on office walls, the Youth Opportunity Center (YOC) is about helping people…not just in small ways, but in life changing ways. Since the early 1990s the YOC has provided a safe place for thousands of youth and families across the state. Now, two decades later, over 10,000 children and families in the majority of Indiana counties have been helped by the 400+ YOC staff members who dedicate themselves each day to making a difference in a child’s life.
The YOC is a premier outpatient and residential treatment facility located in Muncie, Indiana which provides on-going programs and services to over two-thirds of Indiana counties. At the YOC, caring, trained, and educated staff members teach life skills to at-risk youth from across the state. Our uniqueness is our ability to service the most difficult youth with extreme behavioral and emotional challenges. Our multi-discipline team approach, with the client and family at the center, involves clinical, behavioral, medical and academic strategies to help equip the entire family with the tools necessary to be successful. Teamwork is a must!
Impact
The YOC is making an impact, but how do we really know? The Performance Quality Improvement (PQI) plan represents our commitment to data, outcomes, and overall satisfaction. PQI takes an in-depth look at daily practices, program operations, clinical interventions, and customer satisfaction. PQI surveys provide anonymous feedback from parents, youth, and placing agents. This information is analyzed internally for quality measures and helps us to evaluate our performance to best meet the needs of our kids and families.
The YOC also participates in a program which monitors adherence to national standards establishing the highest quality practices and most effective research-based services for youth in placement. This program includes Performance-based Standards (PbS) for detention facilities and Community-based Standards (CbS) for residential facilities. The purpose of these standards is to help identify, monitor and improve conditions and treatment services for youth placed in these facilities. Data is collected twice per year and key indicators of performance are evaluated over time and in comparison to other like programs.
Accreditation
The Youth Opportunity Center (YOC) is a nationally accredited residential youth-care organization that meets the highest standards within the social services field. YOC values accreditation and our ability to leverage evidenced based practices through our treatment modalities. Therefore, YOC earned accreditation through the Council on Accreditation (COA) initially in 2005 and was re-accredited through May 2026.
YOC is also accredited by the American Psychological Association and is one of only 31 such accredited sites across the country and provides one of the few youth doctoral program sites in Indiana. These accrediting bodies demand the highest standards and best practices of behavioral health services.
Indiana Youth Services Association
The Youth Opportunity Center is a fully accredited Youth Service Bureau and a member in good standing of the Indiana Youth Services Association (IYSA). IYSA membership is comprised of Youth Service Bureaus that deliver community based juvenile delinquency prevention and family support programming. IYSA’s current 32 members serve approximately 74 Hoosier counties. Youth Services Bureaus (YSB) serve vulnerable youth and families and offer programming that supports positive youth development. YSB programming is defined in Indiana state statue and includes four core roles:
- Juvenile delinquency prevention
- Information and referral services
- Community education
- Youth Advocacy
Our achievements and efforts focus on services and programs for those youth most at risk for juvenile delinquency. Our goal — always — is prevention. http://www.indysb.org/
