Mission
Sozo brings holistic healing to youth at risk
We commit to the betterment of systems that serve youth by example, grounded in Humanistic and Transpersonal traditions of unconditional positive regard, spiritual meaning, the restorative power of loving therapeutic relationships, and the belief that all human beings have an inherent right to safety, health, and dignity.
Why Sozo Foundation funds treatment for kids in need
Sozo Youth Sanctuary Foundation was co-founded in 2005 by its directors, Frederick O. Bolton and Dr. Lisa Burns, long-time educators devoted to working with youth at risk. This foundation has grown from a shared vision of a holistic approach to healing childhood and adolescent trauma that is often overlooked as the source of severe dysfunction and failure to thrive in many young people. Read about our Team >>
Vision for the present and future
Our intention and planning is to become a self-sustaining foundation which can provide the financial stability and longevity to create a prototype for child and adolescent care. Our 50-acre outdoor sanctuary supplements natural developmental healing.
Our mission is to make whole, to protect, to heal and restore traumatized youth
- Rescue endangered and damaged youth by interrupting and replacing destructive and unhealthy environments and cycles of harm with an emotionally, physically and psychologically safe, wholesome, and protected atmosphere of natural and simple beauty.
- Offer within that safe haven consistent and capable mentoring, a wide variety of therapeutic interaction and activity, and inspired teaching and learning — with the belief that these safeguards will create a readiness where intrinsic and spontaneous recovery may occur.
- Supplement natural developmental healing in this environment with the availability of holistic arts that may serve to nourish the minds, bodies, and souls of children and adolescents suffering from traumatic life experiences, severe dysfunction, and the ravages of substance abuse.
- Accept and to nurture the individual spiritual growth of each child as unique, personal, and self-directed.
- Help growing individuals discover and unwrap the gift within them as a source of meaning, inspiration, and healing.
- Restore damaged youth to their communities with the skills and support required to transition to higher levels of functioning as healthy citizens, thus breaking generational cycles of despair and dysfunction.