Boys Town Central Florida

In our mission to change the way America cares for her children and families, Boys Town Central Florida provides a continuum of care that strengthens them in mind, body and spirit.  Our integrated continuum of family services includes these programs at Boys Town Central Florida:

Boys Town offers an integrated continuum of services that provides children and families with the right care in the right service at the right time. This system is linked in philosophy and in the methods used. To support this integrated continuum, certain fundamental principles, values, and services must cut across all levels of these services and programs. Some of the more important include:  Spirituality/Religious Helping children and families build a strong spiritual and religious foundation is an important part of Boys Town’s mission. Positive character traits like respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, and citizenship provide the framework for a child’s value education. Medical Care Boys Town owns and operates the Boys Town National Research Hospital, which provides clinical and surgical services to patients from Boys Town’s own programs and for children and families across the country. Education Services Education is integral to providing effective treatment for children. In many of the Boys Town residential programs, specialized educational services are embedded within the programs. Care Coordination Boys Town attempts to provide the right services to children and families at the right time and in the right program. Boys Town’s Care Coordination programs provide intensive case management services for children in a variety of settings or levels of care.

Treatment Family Homes for Adolescents is a family-style, community-based residential program which can serve six to eight males or females, usually ages 12 to 18.  Married couples called Family-Teachers are the primary treatment agents, along with a full-time Assistant Family-Teacher.  Family-Teachers are responsible for structured supervision of youth in daily living and treatment activities.  The couple and their assistant work on both treatment and skill building in the home, and with community and family resources in the child’s life.  A major focus of this program is teaching older youth functional skills – often referred to as independent-living skills – that can help them achieve success in school, their families, and work settings.  Boys Town Central Florida has four Treatment Family Homes in Oviedo.

Intervention and Assessment Homes provide intervention during crisis situations and the assessment of youth needs.  The goal of this short-term residential program is to stabilize youth behavior so youth can safely return home or to their designated placement.  Youth work on established treatment plans that address problem areas.  Specially trained staff members conduct behavioral assessments and provide referral recommendations and linkages to needed services.  Boys Town Central Florida continues to work with the state of Florida to combat child abuse and neglect through short-term services at three Intervention and Assessment Centers:

• The Adolescent Emergency Boys Intervention and Assessment Center, serves approximately 300 boys annually with the average length of stay at 21 days.
• The Adolescent Emergency Girls Intervention and Assessment Center, serves approximately 300 girls annually with the average lenth of stay at 22 days. The Center opened its doors in January 2005 thanks to Walt Disney World Co., and many local community businesses.
• The Emergency Children’s Intervention and Assessment Center, provides a family environment with care, stimulation and safety for abused, neglected or abandoned infants and toddlers, newborn through age 5, while authorities seek foster homes or long-term placement for the children.
  
  
  

Children in Need of Services/Families in Need of Services (CINS/FINS) program, along with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice helps runaway, truant and ungovernable youth in Seminole County. Boys Town Central Florida’s CINS/FINS program provides services to children and parents through screenings, assessments, referrals and counseling. As a part of CINS/FINS, Boys Town Central Florida also indirectly assists children and families through Common Sense Parenting^® and Project Safe Place programs.

Boys Town National Hotline (800.448.3000) was established in 1989 and receives more than 400,000 calls every year.  Trained, professional counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Callers’ problems range from relationship and parental discipline issues to depression and suicide.  In crisis situations, counselors assist callers and provide community resources and emergency intervention.  The Hotline provides referrals to agencies throughout the United States and responds to anyone in need of assistance, with a special focus on children and families.  Anyone in a crisis situation, especially children and families, can call 800.448.3000 for help anytime.

Common Sense Parenting^® helps parents to proactively improve their family relationships and their effectiveness as parents.  The program is an interactive, skill-based approach to parenting that teaches parents practical and effective ways to increase their children’s positive behaviors, decrease their negative behaviors, and help them learn appropriate alternative behaviors.  Parents can attend a six-week or seven-week class.  During each session, parents are taught skills that can improve and enhance how they discipline and care for their children. In addition to classes, parents can purchase books and videos they can learn from at home.

Project Safe Place, a national program which runs in conjunction with Boys Town Central Florida, assists at-risk girls and boys in crisis. Designated Seminole County businesses and public locations display the Safe Place logo on their premises, and children who seek their assistance receive help from Boys Town professionals who work with children to identify needed services, resolve crises, and reunite them with their families if it is in the best interest of the children. Project Safe Place includes a partnership with Godfather’s Pizza and Amerada Hess Corps and its Hess Express locations throughout Seminole County.