The Total Achievement Program (TAP) is a therapeutic after-school program for children ages 6-12 who have emotional, behavioral, and social challenges.  The program is designed to assist service recipients in learning age-appropriate coping strategies to handle and express their feelings safely.  Service recipients learn these skills through participating in daily group therapy sessions and structured activities.  The program receives referrals from the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Childre and Families.  Services include group therapy, family therapy, individual social skills training, collateral communication, and case management.

A Bachelor-level intern would be given the opportunity to learn and grow from the following experiences:

• Work alongside a team of counselors in the milieu utilizing a behavior modification system.
• Attend weekly team meetings to discuss presenting issues of the service recipients and be part of treatment planning.
• Attend school and collateral meetings of service recipients.
• Observe and conduct psycho-educational groups on such topics as anger management, self-esteem, health and hygiene, making and keeping friends, empathy, helping others, boundaries and safety, to name a few.
• Learn program evaluation methods, data collection, and maintenance of service recipient records.
• Weekly supervision with Master’s-level staff.

TAP is held daily from 2:30 – 5:30PM during the school year.  During school vacation weeks and part of the summer, the program is run from 9AM – 12PM.  The three program sites (Attleboro, Plymouth, and Hyannis) each participate in a summer camp component.  Please contact the program directors for more details.

Qualifications: Interns should have an interest in – and sensitivity toward - the population that this program serves. Community Care Services requires a Criminal Offender Record Investigation (CORI) which may take 2 weeks for some programs. Other requirements include Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training, as well as tuberculosis screening at some programs. We will arrange for completion of all your requirements.

TAP is a program of Community Care Services, Inc.  The parent organization is a large, nonprofit human services agency with thirty very diverse programs located throughout southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  The agency has over 450 employees and 250 volunteers, including interns.  Please visit out website, www.communitycareservices.org to learn more about the agency.

Potential interns may contact one of the following TAP sites:

Jen Schwarz, Director
50 Walton Street
Attleboro, MA 02703
508.223.4109
jschwarz@communitycareservices.org

Kate Sweeney, Director
118 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
508.747.0402 
ksweeney@communitycareservices.org

Claudia Alifano, Director
270 Communications Way
Hyannis, MA  02601
508.862.2577
califano@communitycareservices.org