Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center will be asking the Lafayette County Planning Commission to approve its request for eight additional beds.

The proposal will be presented to the commission at 5 p.m. on Monday at the Lafayette County Chancery Building.

The additional beds will be for a new program called the Stonewater Summit Program that will provide extended treatment for young men who have already made significant progress in their recovery journey.

These men, who have typically spent between 60 to 90 days in treatment, would enter the Summit Program, where they would receive tailored clinical support while also playing a leadership role in mentoring their peers.

Elizabeth Fikes, the founder and director of Outreach and Communications at Stonewater, said that the Summit Program is designed to capitalize on a critical aspect of adolescent development: peer influence.

“At this stage, adolescents care more about what their peers think than at any other point in their lives,” Fikes said. “We’re using that peer influence in a positive way to help these young men not only continue their own recovery but also help those who are just beginning their journey.”

The program would take place in a separate residential building on the same campus as the current treatment center.

The center has had other requests for additional beds denied in the past, mostly due to concerns about some of the boys running away from the center at times. Fikes said Stonewater has done everything it’s been asked to do, from building fences to adding security.

She said she believes the new program would help continue to lessen those occurrences.

“Adolescent boys in treatment don’t always choose to be there. It’s often a decision made by their parents,” she said. “So when they first arrive, they may resist the process. Over time, though, once they begin to trust the program and its structure, we see them make significant strides.”