In four residences scattered throughout New England, LSS offers teenagers in trouble a safe and supportive living environment in which to learn and grow, while they work on emotional, behavioral and family issues which have disrupted their young lives.

Antrim Girls Shelter

Greentree Homes

The Antrim Girls Shelter

"I came to the Antrim Girls Shelter after getting arrested. While I was angry when it happened... I am now grateful. I've been sexually and physically abused since as long as I can remember. Now I see that what happened to me impacted a lot of other choices I've made. The people at the Girls Shelter helped me to see that the abuse I experienced wasn't my fault, but that I do have to take responsibility for myself to have a good life." - Pamela, age 15

Who Are We?

The Antrim Girls Shelter was established in 1988 with the purchase of the historic George C. Duncan House in the village of Antrim. Since that time, we have become one of the most respected and successful res ources in New Hampshire for social workers, public guardians,school administrators, parents, and legal professionals who want to provide an adolescent girl with the chance to make a new beginning.

The Antrim Girls Shelter provides girls between the ages of 11 and 17 with a safe, caring, and compassioneately challenging environment where they can gain confidence, learn skills to become productive citizens, and start healing the wounds that brought them there.

A Safe Haven for Girls in Trouble

"Until I was 12, my life was kind of normal, I guess. Everything changed when my parents got divorced. I lived with my Mom and we moved alot. My Mom drank too much and was in the hospital alot. I started getting high when I was 13 and stole stuff to buy drugs. No one cared about what I was doing until one night when I passed out on the street and was taken to the hospital. Then they sent me here. I'm almost finished, and will be moving in with a foster family in in two weeks." -Brittany, age 16

Young women from every corner of New Hampshire find safety, structure and respite from abusive or fractured family relationships, chemical dependency, eating disorders and petty crime. During their stay at Antrim, girls work to regain control of their behavior, to catch up with school, to gain insight, and to begin to hea l.

As the only residence of its kind in the State of New Hampshire, Antrim plays a unique role in the treatment of adolescent girls. Girls who have had brushes with the law, or have exhibited anti-social or self-destructive behaviors are given an alternative to being placed in secure detention or left on the streets. .

55 Main Street
P.O. Box 531
Antrim, NH 03440
(603) 588-3124
FAX: (603)588-2985
rtenney@lssne.org

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The Greentree Homes

Making a difference in the lives of adolescents is what the Greentree Homes in Arlington and Brockton,  Massachusetts are all about. Our goal is to provide professional help and programs which will enable our young residents, ages 12 to 17, to focus on the issues which brought about their need for placement. They grow through self knowledge. They heal in the embrace of a caring community, and they begin to develop positive values and attitudes.

What sets Greentree apart from other treatment programs is our emphasis on family outreach. Believing that treatment efforts are most successful when family members participate in the process, our staff travels extensively to include loved ones in the child's healing process.

In the Greentree Homes' small group setting, residents set their own treatment goals. With the help of professional therapists, they reach these goals by learning ways to improve and establish realistic relationships with family, peers, teachers, and foster parents, to choose healthy personal values, to use time more wisely, and to select appropriate behaviors for situations they will encounter.

During a teenager's stay in the Greentree treatment program, we do our best to create a homelike atmosphere within a structured environment and to maintain as normal a routine as possible. For example, residents enjoy family-style meals and attend a public or alternative school appropriate to their needs. Case managers attend to residents' individual needs by coordinating community resources such as clinics and court and school services.

During recreation periods at the home, teens play board or card games, basketball, volleyball, and soccer, or lift weights. Residents also have access to swimming, Nautilus, and other local recreation programs and are offered opportunities to go to the movies, bowling, hiking, biking, as well as other activities.

Under the auspices of Lutheran Community Services of Southern New England, Greentree has been operating three homes, a girls' program in Arlington in partnership with St. Paul Lutheran Church, and two in Brockton, one for girls and one for boys. The Brockton programs have been in operation for more than 12 years.  The Greentree community is offered to any eligible Massachusetts resident regardless of race or religion. Residents are referred by the Massachusetts Division of Social Services (DSS).

Greentree Boys
494 Copeland St.
Brockton, MA  02401
Phone: 508-583-2986
Fax: 508-583-2839
E-mail: BAmes@LSSNE.org

Greentree Girls
659 Summer St.
Brockton, MA  02401
Phone: 508-588-2978
Fax: 508-583-2839
E-mail: BAmes@LSSNE.org

Greentree Girls North
929 Concord Turnpike
Arlington, MA 02476
(781) 643-1418
E-mail: BAmes@LSSNE.org

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