Education Services

Collaborating with School Districts

Four Oaks collaborates with school districts across Iowa to create school-based programs that meet the needs of at-risk students.

Decades of Experience

Since 1973, Four Oaks has served Iowa’s children in need. Our five decades of experience in therapeutic settings have served to sharpen our ability to directly help those in need and gifted us with a bank of knowledge to share with others trying to do the same.

If you or your district is operating a therapeutic classroom and you’re looking for some additional guidance or counsel, we’d love to share what we know with you, too.

Please contact us below to start a conversation about our educational services.

Healthy Lifestyles Program

Since 2019, Four Oaks has partnered with the West Des Moines School District to offer an innovative and restorative approach called Healthy Lifestyles.

West Des Moines added this program as an alternative to traditional disciplinary practices when students were found to be in violation of the district’s controlled substances policy. Since its inception, the Healthy Lifestyles Program has proven to be an effective solution for many young adults to gain the skills needed to reduce risk-taking behaviors and make healthy decisions.

Our program foundation is relationship building and restorative practices aimed at helping students make healthy decisions around their behaviors. One of Four Oaks’ Education Liaisons, Darian, worked with West Des Moines educators to build relationships with students and find out how to best connect and support them as they work towards making healthier choices and meeting their educational goals.

Downloads

Bring our visual guides to your students!

The Four Oaks Education Team has created downloadable visual guides to help educators and their students with restorative mindsets, mindfulness, regulation, and more! Print for display in your classroom to remind students to practice their techniques, or start a discussion with the picture deck to make connections with your students. Our series of printables have countless uses!

Conversation Cards for Kids

This 48 card deck is an engaging and fun way to break the ice and learn more about each other! Kids love the prompts! Print out, laminate, and circle up!

Holiday Conversation Starters Deck

Happy Holidays from the Four Oaks Education Team! Our gift to you is a FREE holiday conversation starter deck! Use with students, coworkers, family, or at holiday parties. We are so thankful to all of our partners and followers. May this bring you some joy and laughter this holiday season! (print 2-sided, flip on short edge)

ISCA Vulnerability & Connectedness Handout

We share ideas for checking in, connecting, and building community with your students!

Picture Deck

We use this card set all the time with adults and kids! It's a tool that can be used in a variety of ways, both content-focused and community building. Check out the directions card for more ideas!

Enneagram Series

This series of printables focuses on ways to more effectively interact with peers and colleagues through the lens of the Enneagram. These pages are meant to be cut into cards. Put them on a ring, and flip through when you need some tips on interacting with certain numbers!

Brain and Basic Needs Series

This printable duo focuses on the science behind regulation in the brain and how dysregulation is often a result of basic needs being unmet. How can we as adults recognize each level and then respond in a way that meets needs and promotes regulation?

Mindfulness Series

There are so many opportunities during our day to incorporate mindfulness! This series of of three downloads provides some ideas on how to incorporate mindfulness into your work and classroom, as well as some ways to make mindfulness practices more trauma-informed.

Restorative Series

Being restorative is a practice and it’s helpful to have visual reminders to help foster restorative mindsets! Revisit consistently and use them as prompts for yourself or students! Four downloads are included in this package.