(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa nonprofit that offers social services to youth statewide will open an addiction treatment facility near Ames next month. Youth and Shelter Services, known as Y-S-S, will run a residential treatment program, as well as crisis stabilization and recovery services. Ember Recovery Campus will feature trails, retreat-style cottages and outdoor recreation areas at its countryside location. C-E-O Andrew Allen hopes the surrounding nature will provide mental health benefits for residents.

“As you sit here, you feel connected to nature,” Allen says. “You feel disconnected from the cacophony of the busyness of town and this is a place where kids and families will come to heal.” Overlooking a prairie in Cambridge, the campus spans more than 50 acres and has 70 beds for adolescents and young adults. The center’s current residency programs in Ames operate out of old houses. Allen says he sees the new center as a trailblazing facility in the state.

“If you are an adult, a young adult, and need treatment, you have to go to a treatment center that serves 60-year-olds,” he says, “and so finally, we’ve got age-appropriate treatment for young adults in Iowa.”

Y-S-S has branches across the state including in Des Moines, Marshalltown, Mason City and Boone. The new campus will be a 20-minute drive from the group’s headquarters in Ames.