The Youth Horizons Trust Residential programme is based on social learning principles: utilising behaviour management and a rewards-based system to teach young people appropriate behaviour and give clear and consistent messages about antisocial behaviour.

Each home has its own unique culture and flavour but all:

• are focused on reducing inappropriate behaviour to a level that allows the young person to return to their home, with the support of an MST clinician or to be eligible for a placement in fostercare;
• use an abridged version of the points system designed by Patti Chamberlain for the Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care programme (Chamberlain, 2003);
• are aimed at teaching young people social competencies through informal instructions during teachable moments, formal programmes such as Goldstein's Equip programme (Goldstein, Glick and Gibbs, 1998), feedback from staff and through role modelling of appropriate behaviour;
• are integration-focused, using a step-up process which promotes self-responsibility and increased periods of unsupervised time in response to appropriate behaviour;
• are intensive and include educational and recreational activities that are supervised by qualified staff;
• include a team of experts who feed into the young-person programme design. The makeup of the team includes cultural and clinical specialists such as social workers, cultural advisors, psychologists, psychiatrists and Kaumatua;
• address cultural needs by matching young people with appropriate staff or mentors, utilisation of external organisations, and through the organisation's support of biculturalism;
• provide intensive family/whanau therapy throughout the young person's stay, with a goal of increasing parental abilities to manage behaviour when the young person is in the family home. Families are encouraged to continue to take responsibility for the young person and assume an active role in decision-making, problem-solving, and interventions with other parties. The aim is to achieve treatment generalisability upon the young person's return home. Treatment focuses on interventions that are designed to reduce barriers to the family taking parental responsibility. Alternatively, Youth Horizons Trust acknowledges that returning home is not an option for some young people. At this juncture, preparation for independence becomes the goal.