TreeHouse is a safe space for teens

I entered the unassuming little house on Main Street, Wautoma, to see that TreeHouse Central has a low-budget, relaxed décor. Any teen would feel comfortable here. So, what is TreeHouse Central?
The TreeHouse program originated 35 years ago when a concerned teacher in Minnesota noticed unhelped and unmentored kids. He named it TreeHouse because that was his safe place as a kid. TreeHouse is now nationwide.
In the beginning, Phil San Fillipo’s son (Ash) had a summer internship with TreeHouse in Minnesota while in college. Upon graduation, he was employed there as a youth mentor and teacher of life skills classes. The Waushara Community Church youth pastor, J.D. Elgin, led a mission trip to help Ash San Fillipo at TreeHouse in MN. J.D. was aware that there were many kids who didn’t fit into church groups – falling between the cracks with a need to be reached. J.D. caught a vision for TreeHouse in Wautoma. He found Bridgette Henschel as the director, and TreeHouse began in Wautoma in the fall of 2018. TreeHouse Central is the name of the Wautoma site, which was the first TreeHouse in WI.
Bridgette explained that the mission of TreeHouse is to ‘unleash hope in teens’. At the beginning, TreeHouse said they were formed for at-risk teens and reconsidered because it seemed to hold a stigma. Then they went with ‘ending hopelessness for teens’, but that was too close to homelessness, which was confusing.
Phil explained that the teens are given hope through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Their method is not to tell teens what to do or try to give them advice. They have counselors and teachers and parents telling them what they’re supposed to do. TreeHouse listens. Listening in order to be a graceful guide to making good life choices.

TreeHouse Central was purposely not housed in a church to be inclusive of any church or non-churched youth. Their location on Main Street in Wautoma had previously housed a daycare and needed extensive renovation. There were many little nap rooms and toilets, and sinks everywhere. The two main heroes who worked on the renovation (tearing out walls, etc.) were Jon Wenzel and George Cutts. Drexel Building Supply donated doors. The former Piggly Wiggly gave a monthly in-store credit covering many paper goods of all kinds (there is a wall of supplies gleaned before the closing of the store in Wautoma).
To start, they met in a room above Two20 but moved to the current location, which needed extensive renovation. At the time of renovation, pastor Andy at Crossroads let them use their gym. About the time the renovation was complete, COVID happened, and meetings went to Zoom. “That was rough. That was really, really hard,” said Phil. Bridgette’s optimism popped out with, “That was hard, but we made it work.”
Currently, there are around 24 youth who attend (a few are momentarily lost to sports). Numbers ebb and flow through the years. Kids are all different, but the TreeHouse message is always the same.
The weekly Tuesday program begins at 6:30 p.m. with a meal (catered by wonderful volunteers from the community) and goes to 8:30 p.m. From 6:30 to 7 p.m. is supper. At 7, they meet in the main meeting room. Cell phones go in a box. Announcements are followed by a 15 to 20 minute lesson plan in this comfy, cozy room of couches and lamps. The lessons are like life skill plans – the current lesson is TreeHouse culture, with subsequent plans on serving others and loving oneself. TreeHouse has an online resource for leaders with hundreds of lesson plans. By the time a cycle of lesson plans is completed, a new batch of teens is coming through. After the lesson, they break out into groups with a leader for the support group night.
TreeHouse Central has two parts to its program. There is a support group and a connect group. The Connect Group is the faith-based night. The first and third Tuesdays are support nights. The second and fourth Tuesdays are connect nights. Teens can choose to be a part of one or both of the programs. The two groups are not mingled.
No more than 10 are in a breakout group. Here, the teens identify at least three emotions they have felt that week. On the connect night, fun and games follow the lesson.
Every support week, the teens hear that they are lovable, capable, and worthwhile. They’re loved without strings, never alone, and they have a future. On the connect night, they hear that they are lovable, capable, and worthwhile because they are made in the image of Christ. That’s why they have value inherent – not something they have to create. They’re loved without strings, which the Bible calls grace – undeserved divine favor. Their past is in the past. They are loved where they are, but they do not need to remain in their current state. But, whatever their present state, TreeHouse staff will meet them just like Christ meets us with the design for renewal and growth. Hope.
Many kids don’t open up for months, but they listen and listen. On the support night, they try to connect the teens with each other for mutual support. This helps them feel empathy and that they’re not alone. TreeHouse aims to connect teens with their emotions. Then they connect with each other in empathy over these emotions. (Each room has a poster of emotive faces identifying emotions.) Things in the room are kept confidential unless something needs to be reported by law. Many of the teens are from single-parent homes or scarred by the effects of drugs and alcohol in the home. Teens often don’t realize the profound grief they carry.
TreeHouse is about creating relationships where teens feel safe and comfortable. Throughout the week, kids are mentored one-on-one. Kids often
open up in vehicles on the way home. It’s a dark, non-face-to-face, safe place. Volunteers are ALWAYS needed. There is an APP online for signing up to serve a light dinner. Sometimes this is the best meal some teens have all week. Some volunteers go ‘all out’. (I challenge my ladies’ discipleship group to sign up!) Teens get quite excited because they know which groups love to bake. Any leftover food gets taken home by the teens.
In the beginning, Bridgette went to high schools and passed out brochures with pizza or cookies. Now teens tell other teens about TreeHouse. Sometimes parents or counselors will refer a teen.
TreeHouse offers free transportation! (The whole program is free.) Because this is such a rural area, transportation is the number one barrier to teen involvement. Every Tuesday before 5 p.m., the teens message that they need to be picked up (with when or where). Bridgette then coordinates the drivers. The teens are returned ONLY to the same location they were picked up. Kids come from Coloma, Plainfield, Poy Sippi, north of Plain River, Neshkoro – all of Waushara County. At first, Bridgette made sure all three of our schools were covered, but word of mouth brought kids from Neshkoro who attended school in Westfield.
TreeHouse runs on volunteers – amazing people who give their time and care about kids. Being a mentor means once or twice a month for an hour of walking or fishing, or a cup of cocoa. One teen spent her mentoring time baking. Volunteers/mentors are vetted through background checks.
Phil still maintains relationships with some guys from their first round of graduates. Bridgette said that they have been sources of job references for the youth. It’s all about relationships. “The relationship we had with God was destroyed in the fall with sin, and He’s always been restoring it, and the purpose of Jesus coming to earth was to restore the relationship with God. And that’s kinda what we are trying to do – to restore a relationship that was broken,” said Phil. Bridgette added, “How we do it is very gracefully and slowly.”
The TreeHouse serves kids from 7th to 12th grades. Younger and older kids are generally separated in breakout groups. 12th graders can stay through the end of their graduation summer. 18-year-olds naturally move on as they get jobs and cars.
Outside of the Tuesday TreeHouse program, there are trips and activities. Upcoming is the Winter Blast Retreat in Camp Forest Springs in Westboro, WI, the last weekend in January. Throughout the year, teens must serve in at least four of Bridgette’s community service projects. Community kindness can look like yard raking through the department of aging, the Chamber of Commerce Breakfast with Santa (teen volunteers dressed as elves serving little kids), Salvation Army bell ringing, helping with the Wild Rose Car Show, stuff with the Lions Club, Kiwanis Halloween event. They’ve adopted a portion of Hwy 73. They help with the County Fair gates, as Bridgette is in the Rotary Club.
Bridgette holds the philosophy of making volunteering fun (something I also adhere to).
When a kid has one solid adult in their life, they are less likely to drop out of high school or commit a crime, or get pregnant. With ONE solid adult in their life! Often, that is a teacher, but they have many kids to attend to and not enough time to sit and listen over an ice cream cone.
TreeHouse is a non-profit 501C3 and the community has kept them going. Let’s not let them down now! (TreeHousecentralwi.org) The needs are financial and for VOLUNTEERS.