Here at STARS (Structured Therapeutic Adolescent Residential Services) we serve youth 13-18 years old who have experienced various traumas, losses, and abuse; however, they can show a lot of resilience and live successfully. Education Transformation Centre (ETC) under Dr. Carr’s leadership was able to establish rapport with our youth quickly where respect and hope was at the core of their services from the beginning to end.

Dr. Carr certainly has a lot of expertise in serving our population, in addition, the two interns, displayed incredible energy and patience to connect with our residents. Residents expressed that they felt heard, trusted, and respected by the ETC team. On this foundation, ETC was able to help our residents unearth their potential thereby increasing their resolve to be successful and looking at how current behaviors dampen their progress toward reaching current program goals.

What impressed us the most was the ability of ETC staff to provide programing that kept residents engaged at least 90% of the time during a three-hour program, three days a week that was creative, relevant, and inspiring. The first week of the program, we heard staff remarking, “we need to hire them now for next year,” later STARS staff were asking the question “how do we get them involved with our youth during the school year” and the final week staff expressing “we gotta have them back next year.”

We are grateful for the vast efforts of ETC to get community speakers involved that could reinforce a consistent message that you matter, you deserve respect, and you are to respect others.

Finally, ETC did an excellent job of celebrating our youth by having them decorate their space with positive affirmations, putting on a talent show and a business casual lunch at the Omni Hotel where they learned social etiquette. Honestly, our staff did not do anything terribly wrong, but the residents may have behaved better than we did. They were well prepared by ETC. At these events, residents had a voice to express their personal gratitude towards the STARS staff as well.

We highly recommend ETC’s services without any reservations.