The Upside Down Organization

The Upside Down Organization (UDO), a program of The Children’s Guild Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education and advocacy for Transformation Education (TranZed), an organizational philosophy and operating system for child-serving organizations. Led by career child advocate President Frank Kros, UDO offers professional development experiences, mentoring services, learning tools and organizational branding that help improve the skills of all people who educate, parent, guide and care for young people.

Capital Needs

The TranZed movement is expanding nationwide thanks to the efforts of The Upside Down Organization (UDO), the TranZed education and advocacy arm of The Children’s Guild. Through the National Children’s Guild Fund, UDO plans to:

• Empower TranZed “change agents” through high-quality professional development;
• Conduct ongoing research to evaluate, refine and replicate TranZed; and
• Create learning opportunities, such as field placements and internships, professional development workshops, curriculum development, and training videos.

Success Stories

In 2007, Casa Pacifica, a crisis-care and residential treatment center in California, partnered with UDO to develop best practices that would reduce and eventually eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint in both residential and school settings.

To help Casa Pacifica reach that goal, UDO developed a workshop series to educate staff about adolescent brain development and behavior interventions focused on understanding and prevention. In addition, Casa constructed its own version of The Children’s Guild’s Multi-Sensory De-escalation Room (MSDR), a state-of-the-art facility to proactively teach students how to self-regulate their own behavior. Known as “Seaville,” Casa Pacifica’s MSDR combines brain research, child development theory and occupational therapy principles into a nautically-themed sanctuary where students learn to recognize and positively respond to their escalating behavior.