Hoyleton Achieves CARE Agency Certification from Cornell University

Hoyleton Youth & Family Services is a Certified CARE Agency, recognized by Cornell University’s Residential Child Care Project (RCCP). This certification confirms that families across Southern Illinois receive trauma-informed, relationship-based care built on research, not routine.

This distinction places Hoyleton among only 20 certified CARE agencies worldwide and just 10 in the United States.

“The work we have done to get to this point has changed the way we engage in our work and will determine where we are able to go tomorrow.”
— Chris L. Cox, President and CEO, Hoyleton Youth and Family Services

What CARE Certification Means

CARE,  Children and Residential Experiences: Creating Conditions for Change,  is a research-based model developed at Cornell. The certification meets strict fidelity standards and requires a rigorous 4-year implementation and assessment process. It provides human services agencies with a framework for environments that promote safety, trust, and healing for youth and families affected by trauma. No child should be punished for behavior rooted in pain, physical or emotional. The hardest work in therapeutic residential care is responding to children in ways that help them succeed.

Hoyleton adopted the model in 2017 and has built its six principles into every part of the agency, from how staff connect with families to how they support one another.

The Six CARE Principles

1. Relationship-Based: Healing happens through strong, supportive relationships among youth, families, and staff. Trust is built in every interaction.
2. Trauma-Informed: Behavior is communication shaped by experience. The focus is empathy and understanding, not punishment.
3. Ecologically Oriented: Children and families live within communities. Programs strengthen the connections to family, schools, and local supports that create lasting stability.
4. Family-Involved: Families are partners in healing. Hoyleton continued family visits even at the height of COVID-19. 
5. Competence-Centered: CARE builds strengths, not compliance. Staff helps youth develop the life skills, confidence, and independence they carry into adulthood.
6. Developmentally Focused: CARE plans meet each child where they are, emotionally, socially, and cognitively.

How CARE Transformed Hoyleton

Before CARE, residential settings often ran on strict rules and behavior modification. CARE taught staff to ask why a behavior occurs rather than react to it. That shift reshaped the organization: fewer physical restraints and more supportive interventions; sustained family engagement through hard seasons; stronger staff morale through shared-support practices like "Sharing is CARE'ing" meetings; and hiring and policies aligned with CARE principles from day one.

CARE is the agency compass. All staff across the agency are required to complete CARE training to ensure the organization is aligned with a shared understanding of the work. It guides case planning, staff development, and community engagement.

Recognition from Cornell University

In May 2022, Cornell University awarded Hoyleton official CARE Agency Certification, recognizing the agency's fidelity to the model and its long-term commitment to children and families. In a congratulatory letter, Martha J. Holden, Director of the Residential Child Care Project, commended Hoyleton’s “innovation, partnership, and dedication to developing improvements to CARE training and implementation.”

Certification includes an ongoing partnership with Cornell, keeping Hoyleton current with evidence-based, trauma-informed practice.

Continuing the CARE Journey

Certification is a commitment, not a finish line. Hoyleton will keep working with Cornell to refine practice, support staff, and strengthen families, creating environments where every child and family can realize the wholeness of life that God intends.