Cay Shea-Hellervik created the Shea-Hellervik Global Foundation to expand on her groundbreaking work treating serious juvenile offenders in Minnesota, for almost fifteen years.
The Foundation seeks to define and advance knowledge of best practices in treating young offenders through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
The Foundation believes this is an area of great promise, yet one that is widely overlooked in philanthropy.
Cay believes that bringing lasting change to the ten percent of the offenders who commit ninety percent of the crimes is worth the investment of time and resources before these offenders become adults. Ingrained in their criminal thinking and behavior, criminals spend the rest of their life in and out of prison, and victimizing innocent people. It is her opinion that these children are so much more malleable and easier to mold and change while young, and still growing and developing. Under her direction, the juveniles underwent a change process that helped them learn how to recognize errors in their thinking in order to choose to stop their criminal behavior.
The Foundation is building on her work to deter juvenile crime by:
- Promoting the book, It’s Not Your Fault domestically and internationally.
- Awarding grants. The Foundation supports efforts to examine how cognitive behavioral therapy can be refined and targeted most effectively to help young criminals change and live productive lives. For more information on grants, please click here
- Promoting discussion. The Foundation envisions future conferences that will bring together practitioners, researchers and parents in a dialogue about effective treatments for juvenile offenders.
- Endowing scholarships. The Foundation will consider endowing scholarships for students whose research areas align with the foundations areas of interest. Students must be enrolled in a University degree program.
This effective response to juvenile crime will yield vast benefits, not only transforming the lives of offenders and their families, but reducing costs to victims, the justice system and societies around the world.
Says Shea-Hellervik: “Everyone connected with the Foundation wants to make the world a better place. We want to help inspire others to live the best lives they can live.” IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFORTS OF THIS FOUNDATION PLEASE GO TO : DONATIONS — CLICK HERE
Shea-Hellervik Global Foundation is focused on Supporting Parents of “justice involved youth.” We empower professionals who work with potential and serious juvenile offenders and they drive change through use of programs that work. Through deployment of innovative cognitive behavioral programs, we strive to translate research findings into practical techniques from experiments to effective use by both parents and professionals.
