Build and Sustain Strong Communities
Mettle Child, Inc., provides educational and societal advantages via a cascade of high quality comprehensive restorative and ongoing family support services designed to work effectively with the emotional, behavioral, and developmental health needs of South Alabama’s disenfranchised population. For positive self-discovery, our heartfelt extracurricular enrichment programs and social services play an active role in the creative, intellectual and social development of your child and provide unique, secure, and stimulating environments to address the damaging effects of child maltreatment. Designed for children who are in placement or at-risk of placement, our services without walls implements ambitious Whatever It Takes efforts to ensure every child is able to live in a safe and nurturing family home with dignity, love, and respect.
Strengthen and Maintain Family Involvement
Through these well-coordinated prevention and early invention services, Mettle Child focuses on reducing the frequency of acute psychiatric hospital admission and residential treatment placements by helping families define the problem, identify causes and risk factors, and design effective interventions aimed at creating hope and wellness. Thereby we maintain the integrity of the family through preservation and reunification which enable our children to realize their highest potential in their home and respective community.
Service Continuum
24/7/365 Telephone Triage and Crisis Intervention (created to encourage members to call on Mettle Child at the first indication of a problem in an effort to keep children from reaching a crisis-level by connecting families in crisis with information, resources, and resolution opportunities)
Strengthen and Maintain Family Involvement
Through these well-coordinated prevention and early invention services, Mettle Child focuses on reducing the frequency of acute psychiatric hospital admission and residential treatment placements by helping families define the problem, identify causes and risk factors, and design effective interventions aimed at creating hope and wellness. Thereby we maintain the integrity of the family through preservation and reunification which enable our children to realize their highest potential in their home and respective community.
Service Continuum
24/7/365 Telephone Triage and Crisis Intervention (created to encourage members to call on Mettle Child at the first indication of a problem in an effort to keep children from reaching a crisis-level by connecting families in crisis with information, resources, and resolution opportunities)
At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”
-Mother Teresa
Adopt-a-Family (each season Mettle Child sponsors one at-risk and in crisis family with the most need of uplifting encouragement and supplemental support, such as emergency financial aid for child care, groceries, housing, prescriptions, transportation, and prescriptions; employability skills and economic stability clinics; clothing and shoes as needed; school supplies as needed; and gifts of goodwill)
Aftercare (presents ways to implement the Multiple Intelligences Theory, by Howard Gardner, into our practice and focuses on addressing and nurturing nine of the multi-faceted components of your child's intelligence: bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, existential intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, musical rhythmic intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, verbal/linguistic intelligence, and visual/spatial intelligence)
The Art of Giving (strategic protégé-led community action project designed to allow our protégés opportunities to take action and explore the many ways we give to one another through sowing seeds of advice, charity, support, voluntarism, and love. Protégés are involved in charitable and volunteer activities, rearing them to be proud, responsible leaders of healthy communities. Through experiential learning, as it relates to humility, giving back and community service, our protégés develop self-worthiness and witness firsthand the positive impact one person may have on a community via organized cleanup and outreach programs)
The Art of You (a self-esteem workshop created to empower body ownership which teaches the difference between good and bad touch, awareness of personal physical space and the physical space of others, how to recognize abusive situations, how to say "No" and ward off advances, and how to disclose abuse to a trusted adult. This critical workshop cultivates acceptance, dignity, and respect for thoughts and feelings of self while developing and strengthening ones capabilities, self-control, self-initiation, and self-kindness through fun, themed events and inspirational speaking)
Arts and Advanced Education Instruction (designed to complement our in-home and community-based field work for your child’s future academic and social success by engaging children in amusing, creative, and experiential learning activities and specialized tutoring, while providing access to books and technology tools to support their educational goals in disciplines of the Arts, environmental studies, humanities, language arts, math, play, science, and all other academic areas)
Beauty in the Beast (weekly child and family counseling sessions designed to give all the power back to you, the child, the family, the group. Family education helps members learn to communicate effectively with others and adopt different points of view, experience, express difficult emotions and disagreements constructively, answer every challenge you may have in your life, and find healthier solutions to resolve concerns without fear of attached stigmas via restorative practices. In addition, supportive group therapy sessions cover topics such as grief and loss, anger management, relationships, team and social skills building)
Behavior Modification (often traumatized children feel as if they are going "crazy" and exhibit signs of anger, fear, and frustrations; these signs may be scary to some, and prohibited, making recovery much more difficult. Mettle Child understands the urgency and empowers children to ask and answer the questions of why, helping them discover alternative ways to acquire positive results through corrective emotional experience necessary for healing in a stable and safe environment with trusted mental health practitioners)
Bible Enrichment (Christian education designed to promote goodwill towards humanity and spiritual wellness)
CAREaVan (door to door carpool service created to provide safe and reliable transportation to and from Mettle Child programs and services, field trips, and youth sports, as well as routine dental, medical, and vision care provided through your health care providers, on individual basis)
Child Abuse Responder Service (in an effort to reduce recidivism, CARS is our specially trained family crisis prevention and early intervention response team providing on demand mobile crisis triage to successfully resolve the crisis in a safe and comfortable manner)
Community Resource and Referral Services (via linkage collaboration Mettle Child advocates for the welfare and enrichment of our children and families by providing appropriate referrals for their multiple needs; be it child welfare resources, clinic-based services, competency evaluations, coordination of educational services; diagnostic assessments, food banks, outpatient behavioral health service, psychiatric and psychological and assessments, psychoeducational and psychosexual evaluations, substance abuse services, and more)
Creative Play
Donation Drives (designed to help children and families through inventiveness to infinity contributions of Back to School Supplies, Books, Blankets, Clothing, Food, Hygiene Kits, Toys, and other Goods)
Empowerment Mentoring
Expressive Arts
Eye of the Tiger (play techniques and recreational processes designed to foster a higher level of awareness and cooperative spirit in children to encourage social skills and relational skills with family; physical wellness and intensity towards community service, school, work, and volunteerism, and a plethora of athletic, competitive, and interactive activities)
Family Events and Vacations (exclusively available to the family of Mettle Child, celebratory events such as arts festivals and crafts days, backyard barbecues, birthday and holiday parties, bowling tournaments, Christmas Gala, and recipe spotlights, help us create positive experiences through family-centered celebrations and connections)
Family Preservation and Stabilization (designed to improve family functioning by stabilizing the living arrangement, addressing safety issues, developing positive parenting practices to prevent the need for out-of-home care and promoting reunification for our children)
Health and Wellness (presents ways to implement Dimensions of Wellness to instill personal satisfaction and enrichment in one's life)
In-Home Respite Care
Independent and Transitional Living Instruction (assisting protégés with living skills, college preparation, career development and vocational skills to select, apply, receive, and keep real jobs in the community)
Jam Sessions
Life Coaching (activities designed to help protégés develop vital skills so they may communicate and interact more effectively in any life situation—promoting healing power from trusted and supportive role models)
Mindfulness at Work (training and workshop opportunities tailored for child-specific essential assistance for career path aspirations and/or job readiness needs for occupational wellness and success)
Parental Fitness (focuses on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship, while teaching effective behavior management and coping skills for positive life changing family interactions)
Puttin’ on the Ritz (artistic talent and fashion showcases designed to inspire imaginative expression and ingenuity)
Prudent Parenting (an Authoritative Parenting Style has been implemented as the standard by which Mettle Child exemplifies careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain your child's health, safety, and best interest. According to Baumrind (1991), an authoritative parenting style will help your child develop positive behaviors such as strong self-esteem and self-competence. Thus we establish rules and guidelines that children are expected to follow. Authoritative Parenting is democratic―responsive to our children and willing to listen to questions. When children fail to meet the expectations, we nurture and forgive rather than consequence. Baumrind suggests that Authoritative Parenting "monitors and imparts clear standards for children’s conduct. Thus we are assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive. Our disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. We want your child to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as cooperative."
Registered Nursing Care (first aid and medication management services)
Savage Beauty (skill building and youth development for girls designed to help our daughters develop the resilience they need to overcome the many stressors they face in their daily lives—giving our leaders in training a purpose and a future. Both intelligent and beautiful, we empower and inspire young ladies to be inquisitive and original through esteem building workshops that address the importance of style, social skills, self-defense, proper primping and hygiene, positivity, morality, integrity, heritage, healthy habits, fitness, education, courage, career options, economic stability, advocacy, and abstinence. Moreover, protégées learn entrepreneurial skills through business lessons and hands-on experiences to identify and create opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status by way of establishing their own successful companies.
Please Note: Hygiene items, clothing, school supplies, and allowance may be provided to protégées)
Services Without Walls (created to render flexible and meaningful in-home and unique one-on-one community-based supportive services intended to provide family crises prevention and early intervention utilizing a Whatever it Takes approach. Field capable services are provided primarily to your child within the family home and community to help families negotiate and obtain needed services, create hope, mental health and wellness, while successfully transforming their lives)
Social Skills Instruction (designed to create engaging and interactive ways to teach protégés modern day manners; business, dining and social etiquette; niceties and civility; and successful relationship building strategies)
Summer Spirit Camp
Take the A Train (created to encourage, recognize and reward protégés who put effort and care into their work, and/or are responsible for their personal growth and development through achieving high academic and behavioral standards)
Trauma Informed Care (designed to reduce symptoms of traumatic stress and improve utilization of coping skills)
Two-Faced Friends (weekly peer groups designed to teach invaluable communication skills—ask questions, persist, and solve problems in healthy ways to manage stress, express feelings, and deflect peer and media pressures. Learn a variety of ways to positively interact and relate to other survivors of abuse, neglect, and exploitation)
Well Suited (skill building and youth development for boys designed to help our sons develop the resilience they need to overcome the many stressors they face in their daily lives—giving our leaders in training a purpose and a future. Both intelligent and charming, we empower and inspire young men to be inquisitive and original through esteem building workshops that address the importance of style, social skills, self-defense, proper grooming and hygiene, positivity, morality, integrity, heritage, healthy habits, fitness, education, courage, career options, economic stability, advocacy, and abstinence. Moreover, protégés learn entrepreneurial skills through business lessons and hands-on experiences to identify and create opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status by way of establishing their own successful companies.
Please Note: Hygiene items, clothing, school supplies, and allowance may be provided to protégés)
Youth Sports Programs (created to promote the development of transferable skills, and provide a menu of athletic participation opportunities for enrichment, leadership, self-esteem, and success, while fostering character, confidence, friendships, and talent)
Aftercare (presents ways to implement the Multiple Intelligences Theory, by Howard Gardner, into our practice and focuses on addressing and nurturing nine of the multi-faceted components of your child's intelligence: bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, existential intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, musical rhythmic intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, verbal/linguistic intelligence, and visual/spatial intelligence)
The Art of Giving (strategic protégé-led community action project designed to allow our protégés opportunities to take action and explore the many ways we give to one another through sowing seeds of advice, charity, support, voluntarism, and love. Protégés are involved in charitable and volunteer activities, rearing them to be proud, responsible leaders of healthy communities. Through experiential learning, as it relates to humility, giving back and community service, our protégés develop self-worthiness and witness firsthand the positive impact one person may have on a community via organized cleanup and outreach programs)
The Art of You (a self-esteem workshop created to empower body ownership which teaches the difference between good and bad touch, awareness of personal physical space and the physical space of others, how to recognize abusive situations, how to say "No" and ward off advances, and how to disclose abuse to a trusted adult. This critical workshop cultivates acceptance, dignity, and respect for thoughts and feelings of self while developing and strengthening ones capabilities, self-control, self-initiation, and self-kindness through fun, themed events and inspirational speaking)
Arts and Advanced Education Instruction (designed to complement our in-home and community-based field work for your child’s future academic and social success by engaging children in amusing, creative, and experiential learning activities and specialized tutoring, while providing access to books and technology tools to support their educational goals in disciplines of the Arts, environmental studies, humanities, language arts, math, play, science, and all other academic areas)
Beauty in the Beast (weekly child and family counseling sessions designed to give all the power back to you, the child, the family, the group. Family education helps members learn to communicate effectively with others and adopt different points of view, experience, express difficult emotions and disagreements constructively, answer every challenge you may have in your life, and find healthier solutions to resolve concerns without fear of attached stigmas via restorative practices. In addition, supportive group therapy sessions cover topics such as grief and loss, anger management, relationships, team and social skills building)
Behavior Modification (often traumatized children feel as if they are going "crazy" and exhibit signs of anger, fear, and frustrations; these signs may be scary to some, and prohibited, making recovery much more difficult. Mettle Child understands the urgency and empowers children to ask and answer the questions of why, helping them discover alternative ways to acquire positive results through corrective emotional experience necessary for healing in a stable and safe environment with trusted mental health practitioners)
Bible Enrichment (Christian education designed to promote goodwill towards humanity and spiritual wellness)
CAREaVan (door to door carpool service created to provide safe and reliable transportation to and from Mettle Child programs and services, field trips, and youth sports, as well as routine dental, medical, and vision care provided through your health care providers, on individual basis)
Child Abuse Responder Service (in an effort to reduce recidivism, CARS is our specially trained family crisis prevention and early intervention response team providing on demand mobile crisis triage to successfully resolve the crisis in a safe and comfortable manner)
Community Resource and Referral Services (via linkage collaboration Mettle Child advocates for the welfare and enrichment of our children and families by providing appropriate referrals for their multiple needs; be it child welfare resources, clinic-based services, competency evaluations, coordination of educational services; diagnostic assessments, food banks, outpatient behavioral health service, psychiatric and psychological and assessments, psychoeducational and psychosexual evaluations, substance abuse services, and more)
Creative Play
Donation Drives (designed to help children and families through inventiveness to infinity contributions of Back to School Supplies, Books, Blankets, Clothing, Food, Hygiene Kits, Toys, and other Goods)
Empowerment Mentoring
Expressive Arts
Eye of the Tiger (play techniques and recreational processes designed to foster a higher level of awareness and cooperative spirit in children to encourage social skills and relational skills with family; physical wellness and intensity towards community service, school, work, and volunteerism, and a plethora of athletic, competitive, and interactive activities)
Family Events and Vacations (exclusively available to the family of Mettle Child, celebratory events such as arts festivals and crafts days, backyard barbecues, birthday and holiday parties, bowling tournaments, Christmas Gala, and recipe spotlights, help us create positive experiences through family-centered celebrations and connections)
Family Preservation and Stabilization (designed to improve family functioning by stabilizing the living arrangement, addressing safety issues, developing positive parenting practices to prevent the need for out-of-home care and promoting reunification for our children)
Health and Wellness (presents ways to implement Dimensions of Wellness to instill personal satisfaction and enrichment in one's life)
In-Home Respite Care
Independent and Transitional Living Instruction (assisting protégés with living skills, college preparation, career development and vocational skills to select, apply, receive, and keep real jobs in the community)
Jam Sessions
Life Coaching (activities designed to help protégés develop vital skills so they may communicate and interact more effectively in any life situation—promoting healing power from trusted and supportive role models)
Mindfulness at Work (training and workshop opportunities tailored for child-specific essential assistance for career path aspirations and/or job readiness needs for occupational wellness and success)
Parental Fitness (focuses on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship, while teaching effective behavior management and coping skills for positive life changing family interactions)
Puttin’ on the Ritz (artistic talent and fashion showcases designed to inspire imaginative expression and ingenuity)
Prudent Parenting (an Authoritative Parenting Style has been implemented as the standard by which Mettle Child exemplifies careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain your child's health, safety, and best interest. According to Baumrind (1991), an authoritative parenting style will help your child develop positive behaviors such as strong self-esteem and self-competence. Thus we establish rules and guidelines that children are expected to follow. Authoritative Parenting is democratic―responsive to our children and willing to listen to questions. When children fail to meet the expectations, we nurture and forgive rather than consequence. Baumrind suggests that Authoritative Parenting "monitors and imparts clear standards for children’s conduct. Thus we are assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive. Our disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. We want your child to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as cooperative."
Registered Nursing Care (first aid and medication management services)
Savage Beauty (skill building and youth development for girls designed to help our daughters develop the resilience they need to overcome the many stressors they face in their daily lives—giving our leaders in training a purpose and a future. Both intelligent and beautiful, we empower and inspire young ladies to be inquisitive and original through esteem building workshops that address the importance of style, social skills, self-defense, proper primping and hygiene, positivity, morality, integrity, heritage, healthy habits, fitness, education, courage, career options, economic stability, advocacy, and abstinence. Moreover, protégées learn entrepreneurial skills through business lessons and hands-on experiences to identify and create opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status by way of establishing their own successful companies.
Please Note: Hygiene items, clothing, school supplies, and allowance may be provided to protégées)
Services Without Walls (created to render flexible and meaningful in-home and unique one-on-one community-based supportive services intended to provide family crises prevention and early intervention utilizing a Whatever it Takes approach. Field capable services are provided primarily to your child within the family home and community to help families negotiate and obtain needed services, create hope, mental health and wellness, while successfully transforming their lives)
Social Skills Instruction (designed to create engaging and interactive ways to teach protégés modern day manners; business, dining and social etiquette; niceties and civility; and successful relationship building strategies)
Summer Spirit Camp
Take the A Train (created to encourage, recognize and reward protégés who put effort and care into their work, and/or are responsible for their personal growth and development through achieving high academic and behavioral standards)
Trauma Informed Care (designed to reduce symptoms of traumatic stress and improve utilization of coping skills)
Two-Faced Friends (weekly peer groups designed to teach invaluable communication skills—ask questions, persist, and solve problems in healthy ways to manage stress, express feelings, and deflect peer and media pressures. Learn a variety of ways to positively interact and relate to other survivors of abuse, neglect, and exploitation)
Well Suited (skill building and youth development for boys designed to help our sons develop the resilience they need to overcome the many stressors they face in their daily lives—giving our leaders in training a purpose and a future. Both intelligent and charming, we empower and inspire young men to be inquisitive and original through esteem building workshops that address the importance of style, social skills, self-defense, proper grooming and hygiene, positivity, morality, integrity, heritage, healthy habits, fitness, education, courage, career options, economic stability, advocacy, and abstinence. Moreover, protégés learn entrepreneurial skills through business lessons and hands-on experiences to identify and create opportunities to improve their socioeconomic status by way of establishing their own successful companies.
Please Note: Hygiene items, clothing, school supplies, and allowance may be provided to protégés)
Youth Sports Programs (created to promote the development of transferable skills, and provide a menu of athletic participation opportunities for enrichment, leadership, self-esteem, and success, while fostering character, confidence, friendships, and talent)
All programs and services are facilitated and supervised by counselors (mental health practitioners) who are active participants and highly engaged in every extracurricular. Our counselors are CPR & First Aid certified and respond to difficult emotions with kindness and understanding--stimulating and fostering creative thinking and problem solving. Should you have any question or concerns regarding our comprehensive restorative services for children and families, please Contact Us today.