Commentary: What I learn from Utah’s ‘yet unpolished gems’

Youthful impulse is often what puts kids in treatment centers. But it’s also what turns their lives back around.

Sprinkled across Utah’s eye-catching mountains, peaceful valleys and sweeping plateaus are a series of inpatient wilderness therapy programs and residential treatment centers for adolescents and young adults. Their high success rate is attributed to many factors: the quality of the staff, the beauty and isolation of the surroundings and the local legislation that enables these centers to help so many. But, in my humble opinion, the biggest reason for their success isn’t the centers or the staff.

As director of Project H.E.A.R.T. (Hebrew Education for At Risk Teens) for 27 years…