Our campus is located on 157 acres in the beautiful foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the middle of Oregon's covered bridge country. A creek runs though our lush and forested property. At the heart of our campus is a creek fed pond. A floating gazebo on the pond is a favorite spot to hold meetings and individual therapy sessions. The tranquility of our campus benefits our students whose lives, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors were often chaotic and harmful prior to entering treatment.

We have purposefully designed our campus so that it lends itself to teaching our students to function for themselves and we provide numerous opportunities for them to master their environment, gain confidence in their abilities, and to develop self-sufficiency and resiliency. For example, unlike like other schools where students are served dinner in a dining hall, at Santiam Crossing your child will work with other students to coordinate meals, designate tasks, cook and clean-up.

Another example is that our cabins are heated with wood burning stoves. So as opposed to simply turning up the dial for their comfort, your child will work alongside his or her cabin-mates to ensure the temperature is comfortable. There is talk that this generation of children is the “failure to launch” or “boomerang” generation and that our adolescents aren’t learning the skills they need to succeed on their own as an adult.

At Santiam Crossing we provide numerous opportunities for students to master skills and build self-confidence, which will support them as they move toward adulthood.Students reside in cozy cabins that are equipped with wood stoves, beds for each student, and space for each student to store his or her belongings. The cabins sleep up to 12 students and two counselors live in the cabins with the students. Each cabin group does their own group cooking at a designated cooking area adjacent to their cabin. Students work together, with oversight from our counselors, to plan and prepare meals. Our students learn about cooking, food quality, and menu planning, in order to better understand the value of a healthy diet and to expose them to the benefits of making healthy lifestyle choices.

A registered dietitian oversees our menu. Here is a sample menu which will give you an idea of what students eat in a given month.