A. Boys Town may offer a combination of any of these unique and innovative programs to serve children and families at sites across the country: Short-Term Residential Services, Residential Services, Family-Based Services, Treatment Foster Family Services and Behavioral Health Services.
Short-Term Residential Services provide a safe environment for girls and boys in crisis, including runaway, homeless, court-placed or abused children, or children involved with the Juvenile Justice System. Depending on local need, children may receive care from an Emergency Shelter, or a Staff-Secure or Non-Secure Detention Center. Highly trained professionals provide individual assessment, counseling and care to help children, ages 8-18, be safe, work towards achieving individual treatment goals, learn life skills and problem-solving techniques, identify challenges and make better choices. On average, children stay in a short-term facility between two weeks and one month. If it is in the best interest of a child, Boys Town will focus on reuniting that child with his or her family.
Residential Services focus on family style living. In more than 100 long-term residential care homes across the country, a married couple, known as Family-Teachers, lives in each home with six to eight girls or boys ages 10-18. The couple, with the help of an assistant, ensures the children’s physical, spiritual, emotional and treatment needs are met. On average, children stay in a residential home between 12 and 18 months. Family-Teachers and Assistant Family-Teachers are the heart and soul of the residential homes and the children’s success. They are trained and certified annually through an ongoing professional development and evaluation process. This certification ensures the Teachers are providing the best care possible to their “family.”
Family-Based Services, including Family Preservation Services and Family Centered Services, provide trained Consultants to help families whose children are at-risk for removal from their homes due to abuse or neglect. Boys Town Consultants work with families on a short- or long-term basis to help them provide a safe, healthy environment for their children by focusing on strengths, becoming self-sufficient, improving parenting techniques, developing problem-solving skills, opening lines of communication, learning to access needed community resources and achieving basic goals.
Treatment Foster Family Services provide care to infants through 18-year-olds, who need more attention and treatment than they could receive in a traditional foster care placement. Boys Town recruits and trains foster parents, who take children into their private homes and provide treatment in supportive and nurturing environments. Foster parents receive 24-hour, on-call support from Boys Town professionals. On average, children stay between 12 and 18 months in a Treatment Foster Home.
Behavioral Health Services provide short-term inpatient treatment for children and adolescents ages 7 to 18 who have severe emotional, behavioral and mental health problems. Most of the youth who enter this program have not found success in previous treatment settings. The goal of Behavioral Health Services is to provide individualized treatment that will help youth progress as quickly as possible to a less-restrictive level of care and ultimately succeed in a home environment. Behavioral Health Services include the Intensive Residential Treatment Center located at the Boys Town National Research Hospital and Treatment Group Homes located at the Village of Boys Town.
A. Boys Town is a national leader in evaluating the services it provides to children and families. The Boys Town National Database helps us monitor the treatment of each child in our care on a daily basis in order to evaluate the effectiveness of individual programs, including those in the Village of Boys Town and at Boys Town sites across the country. This process is part of our commitment to continuous program improvement and refinement. It is our goal that kids live better, happier and more productive lives after they complete Boys Town programs.
Boys Town conducts periodic follow up studies. As indicated in the graph above, studies show 96 percent of children who complete our programs go to school and graduate, and 93 percent have not been arrested since leaving our programs. Children who complete our programs also flourish in their relationships with their peers, teachers and families.
