Your business. Your impact on a young person’s next chapter.

Running a group center means building something of your own: a licensed program, a team you hire and lead, and an approach shaped by what you do best. It also means spending a short, important stretch of time with children and youth whose needs run higher than most settings can meet, and helping each one steady enough to move on to something less restrictive. Owner-operators come to this from foster parenting, from residential provider work with our Adult Services, and from running programs elsewhere. Your staff work the shifts. You run the business.

New to group centers? Learn what a group center is and who lives there.

You own it. Ariel sponsors it.

In Colorado, every specialized group facility (SGF) has to be sponsored and supervised by a licensed child placement agency (CPA), so no group center opens without one. Ariel is that sponsor. The license and the business are yours, and Ariel stands behind both.

Some things come with every group center. It runs as a program, with therapeutic goals for each resident that are set and measured over time. Paid staff cover every hour in shifts, and no one’s family lives on site. Residents don’t stay long: each stay is meant to steady things so a young person can move to a foster home, back to family, into adoption, or toward living independently. Colorado caps an SGF at fewer than twelve residents.

Inside that frame, the choices are yours. You decide what your program focuses on and build the expertise behind it, and Ariel matches placements to what you’ve built. You and Ariel review each referral together, looking at whether a young person fits your program and the residents already living there. That care in matching is a big part of what helps placements last, and for a young person who has already moved too many times, a placement that lasts matters more than almost anything.

It’s real work with real outcomes. You’re running a business and a program at once: staff to lead, goals to hit, and a home that has to hold steady when a resident is having the hardest week of the year. Ariel’s role is to make sure you’re never doing it without backup.

The children and youth group centers serve

Group centers serve children and youth with high behavioral acuity and needs that are hard to find services for. Some qualify for a higher level of care but can’t get a bed because demand outpaces the options. Others would otherwise be placed out of state, and a group center can be what keeps a young person in Colorado. Placements come through county human services departments and case management agencies (CMAs), and sometimes directly from a parent or guardian when a child is on the Children’s Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) waiver.

The work and the rewards

The time you have with each resident is limited, yet it counts for a lot. In a short stretch, you can change a young person’s trajectory, and where that young person goes next often depends on what happened in your program.

If you like leading people, there’s a lot of room for that here. You hire your team, mentor them, and help each person grow into the work. Direct-care staff who can see the difference they’re making are the ones who keep showing up, and building that kind of team is one of the most satisfying parts of the role.

And you can go home. Staff cover the shifts, so you aren’t on call as a live-in parent. That’s what makes this work you can keep doing without it swallowing the rest of your life.

Some relationships outlast the stay by years. One of the owner-operators Ariel sponsors still hears from former residents long after they’ve moved on, calling for advice, checking in, or just saying hi, and still steps in with practical help when life gets hard. Some of those former residents have gone on to college.

Why choose Ariel as your sponsor

Ariel started in Grand Junction in 1994 with a special education teacher who believed children in the hardest circumstances deserved care built on sound assessment and measurable goals, and who loved finding creative ways to get there. A group center runs on that same thinking. Ariel has grown into a statewide nonprofit since then, and has sponsored group centers for nearly two decades. What hasn’t changed is the belief underneath it all: every person has worth and dignity, and the relationships around them matter.

That goes for you, too. In practice, it looks like structure, support, and connections across the system. Weekly on-site visits are required. With Ariel, the same case manager comes each week and stays at least two hours. Ariel tracks the trainings your staff still need so nothing lapses, helps you stay current across the four sets of licensing rules a group center answers to, and opens onboarding and monthly training to your staff at low cost. Ariel can join you for the meetings that matter most, like a resident’s IEP, can step in as liaison when you’re working something through with a county, and is a phone call away after hours.

On the business side, Ariel tracks referrals, secures funding before a placement begins, and handles billing. A single placement can draw on the CHRP waiver, county funding, and the contracts behind each; Ariel works through those streams and the bureaucracy around them so your funding matches the services you provide. For owner-operators starting new, that support often includes learning how to run the business itself. Owner-operators who have moved their group centers to Ariel describe the difference as organizational as much as financial.

Ariel’s support can reach residents directly, too, from recognizing good grades to helping young people who go on to a vocational program or college.

How to get started

Whether you’re running a group center now or starting from scratch, the first step is the same: a conversation with the Ariel office nearest you.

If you already run a group center with another agency. Owner-operators can change child placement agencies, and the license and the business stay yours. Your nearest Ariel office can walk you through what a move involves and what Ariel takes on from there: billing, funding navigation, licensing compliance support, and weekly case management.

If you’re starting new. The license and the business belong to you from the first day.

For a new group center, the path runs in three steps:

  • Start with a conversation. Bring your program idea and your questions. It’s a chance to see whether this fits you and what the license will ask of you.

  • Work through state licensing. Licensing for 24-hour child care facilities runs through the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) Division of Child Welfare, Provider Services Unit. The formal starting point is a licensing inquiry to [email protected]. The application packet comes from the state, and Ariel helps you understand each piece as you work through it. You’ll also need small business insurance. The state’s specialized group facilities page explains the license itself.

  • Open with Ariel as your sponsor. Once your license is in place, Ariel becomes your sponsoring and oversight agency and begins matching placements to your program.

    Interested in working at a group center rather than running one? Group centers hire their own staff. For roles at Ariel, including Ariel-operated homes, see open positions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

If you don’t find what you’re looking for below, feel free to ask your question via our Contact Form.

A group center is staffed around the clock by paid employees working shifts. It runs as a program, with therapeutic goals that are set and measured, and every stay is short-term stabilization. A foster home is a family’s own home. See how group centers, foster homes, and other settings compare.

No. Group centers are fully staffed, and no one’s family lives on site. Ariel is also licensed to sponsor specialized group homes, where the operator’s family does live on site; ask about that option when you call.

Yes. The license and the business belong to you. Ariel sponsors and supervises.

Yes. You and Ariel review each referral together, looking at whether a young person fits your program and the residents already living there.

Yes. Owner-operators can change child placement agencies, and the license and the business stay yours. Call your nearest Ariel office to talk through what a move involves.

Through Ariel. You submit rosters, Ariel bills and pays you, and you pay your own staff.

County human services funding and the CHRP waiver. More than one source can apply to a single placement, and Ariel navigates them for you.

Yes. Small business insurance is required.

The same case manager visits weekly and stays at least two hours. Each visit includes employee file audits, a home tour, a review of admissions and seven-day reports, and staffing ratio checks. If concerns come up, visits can also be unannounced.

You and your staff manage day-to-day crises on site. After hours, Ariel provides direction and reporting support by phone. Critical incidents are reported to Ariel right away.

About 20 hours of onboarding training, then monthly training after that. Courses include CPR, first aid, QMAP medication administration, documentation standards, and specialty trainings, available to your staff at low cost.

Group centers hire their own staff. For roles at Ariel, including Ariel-operated homes, see open positions.

Ready to talk?

Whether you’re running a group center now or have been turning the idea over for a while, the next step is a conversation with the Ariel office nearest you. Ariel currently sponsors group centers in the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction. Bring your questions about the license, the funding, and the program you want to build.

>> Unless otherwise noted, all images and names represent real people but actual images and names have not been used for privacy reasons. <<