Testimonials
Although my brother, John, died an early death, it was from a rare form of terminal, adult-onset Rheumatoid Arthritis and not from a lack of caring adults or a strong foundation in his life - for Karma Academy staff replaced that missing foundation with a kindness and decency that stayed with him always.
Since John is not here to say what Karma did for him; I would like to speak on behalf of my brother and countless others who went onto lead exemplary lives, thanks to the round the clock support and dedication Karma staff so lovingly provided. There are many successful Karma graduates who are well and thriving, but for now, I will limit my remarks to my brother, John.
Karma gave my brother the support of individual therapy and the consistent structured and predictable environment of direct, strong, and caring male and female role-modelling. It was truly a community of staff that made my brother feel deeply valued for the first time in his young life. On the other hand, Karma also made him accountable and responsible for his actions, which was quite a revolutionary concept to him at his young age!
There were also parental and family therapy groups required for each resident and was that ever an eye opener for all of us. It turned out that though my brother was our identified problem child; he was not THE problem - as we went on to learn about family roles, communication and resiliency skills together. Some of the group work included all of the residents’ families and that was an amazing revelation as well. We learned that our family was not alone in our desperation and that these other families would become our ongoing support system and we would be bonded with most of them for the rest of our lives. And almost all of the young men we grew to love from our time at Karma went onto lead productive, responsible lives as contributing members of our society.
When my brother passed away he had been married for 12 years, had a devoted wife and six year old son and he was independently learning Spanish in order to better work with and understand his employees in his management position with a local employer. His employees loved him for that and were very kind and generous as his health rapidly declined to the point where he was dead within six months of his diagnosis. Many, many people in the Hispanic community attended his funeral to celebrate his life and it was such a wonderful consolation to know that John had made a difference in so many lives.
In summary, Karma saved lives and saved families and mine was one of them.
Kathy —–––––-
As still the uncle, and with my wife as the aunt of Adam, we want to commend the professionalism, patience, and counseling of family therapist, LB, and EO, Residential Counselor, and others whose names we did not record. Of the four group homes Adam was assigned to, we as legal guardians, were most impressed by the caring and compassion of all your observed staff members and how they interacted with the young men, including Adam, who has severe emotional and psychological problems.
Ms. B–– was very helpful in helping us to try to understand why Adam was and is so distrustful of adults, authority, and discipline. Unfortunately, Adam has missed the opportunity to re-establish his connection to the education he needs very much to succeed in our society and to develop vocational skills to help him become a productive member of society. Even though he decided to rebel and to run away from Karma (he ran away 10 other times from the other programs he attended) we still commend all of you in attempting to help our nephew, Adam, who is really our fourth son since we raised him from the age of 4 to essentially age 17.
The location of Karma is very peaceful, calm and pleasant. The Monday “Multi-Family Group” sessions are very effective in having parents become involved with mentoring and supporting the young men in residence.
Sincerely,
L.M.A., Esq.