National Association of
Therapeutic Schools and Programs
(NATSAP)
Bethesda, MD

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Share Your Success Stories with NATSAP and the Public

Share Your Success Stories With NATSAP And The Public

In November 2013, NATSAP embarked on an enhanced public relations effort by hiring a PR professional to assist us. One of our new PR campaign goals is to share NATSAP member programs' success stories with external audiences--particularly journalists.

Sharing these compelling stories is just one way to inoculate external audiences--particularly journalists, with good news about therapeutic schools and programs. That way, when a negative situation happens, reporters will be familiar with our success stories and even in light of the negative story being told, our hope is that the end-result is a more overall, well-balanced story.

To this end, we are seeking success stories from your program. These stories can be told from the viewpoint of the graduate, a counselor (with permission from the student), a teacher (with permission), parents or guardians, siblings or other family members or friends. Each success story should follow these guidelines:

• Be personal and told in the first person (I)


• Be a realistic account of the circumstances surrounding the before and after


• Describe not just what happened, but include the author's true thoughts and feelings about what happened and how their lives were affected before and after


• Run no longer than 400 words.

We plan to use these stories in a number of ways including:

• As a blog posted on NATSAP's website


• A press release featuring one or more stories


• As a testimonial posted on NATSAP's website (may be shortened to fit the space) or the soon to be released NATSAP Members Only Forum


• An excerpt from the story that NATSAP might use as a quote in materials such as a press release, marketing materials, etc.


• As a video on our YouTube channel for those who give explicit permission for us to post a video.

PLEASE NOTE: For anyone who submits a story and prefers to remain anonymous, we do not need to use your name, age, gender, geographic location or any other personal identifying information in your story. Our goal is to protect the privacy of graduates and their families while keeping the integrity of your story intact.

Please submit your initial success stories, as many as you'd like, to NATSAP's office by Friday, September 18. Thereafter, don't hesitate to send us others as they occur.

We have lots of great stories to tell. It's time we told them. Thanks so much.

The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) is a not-for-profit association whose members include Therapeutic Boarding Schools, Residential Treatment Centers, Wilderness Programs, and Young Adult Programs throughout the United States. Additionally, NATSAP has membership categories for Individual Professionals, Suppliers, and Students. NATSAP holds seven regional conferences in addition to its Annual Conference, presents webinars on various topics, conducts Outcomes Research, publishes a professional journal, a variety of newsletters, and more.