Boys Town Washington

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

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 Washington, D.C., has four Specialized Treatment Group Homes in the District.

Treatment Foster Care is a community-based program operated by specially trained and supervised Treatment Foster Parents to serve foster children with treatment needs. Treatment Foster Parents care for youth of all ages – infancy through adolescence – who need more attention and treatment than is provided in a traditional foster care placement. Boys Town recruits, trains, and supervises Treatment Foster Parents, enabling them to care for youth with special needs in their private homes. 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. Treatment Foster Parents receive 24-hour, on-call support and treatment advice from Boys Town professionals.

Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care is an evidence-based model of treatment serving youth ages 12-17 in need of an out of home placement due to serious problem behaviors. Most youth have been involved in numerous treatment efforts prior to referral. Foster parents meet once a week with other foster parents in the program to support and learn from each other. On average, children stay about 6-9 months in Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care Homes before transitioning back to their biological families or other aftercare resource.

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’s 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. Boys Town Washington, D.C., has parenting classes available on an ongoing basis. Call 202.832.7343 for the current class schedule.

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.