Boys Town North Florida recently participated in the Provider to Provider Expo: Local Advocates Strengthening Families Together held on April 10, 2017. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum organized the expo with the purpose of providing an interactive day of professional development for providers to focus on learning local resources and their referral processes, engaging with other agencies, facilitating connections with families and engaging with peers in the local system of care.

Boys Town North Florida was chosen to be one of nine agencies to present. The Expo featured different providers, including Boys Town, Kearney Center, FSU School of Medicine, the Early Learning Coalition, Play Big Therapy and many other organizations dedicated to providing for children in the community. 

Matthias Sidney, Boys Town North Florida Coordination Services Consultant, and Bethany Lacey, Boys Town North Florida Senior Director of Program Operations, were given the opportunity to share more information about Boys Town's centennial, history, legacy and current impact within the community with those in attendance.

Each organization was provided with 15 minutes to present to the crowd of over 200 individuals. Those in attendance were made up of representatives from different sectors of the community such as the school district, law enforcement, child care, hospitals and social service agencies.

"It was so exciting to see all these providers come together with the common goal of wanting to ensure families receive the right service at the right time!" Lacey said. "It was powerful to witness all these agencies working together to ensure that no child or family falls through the crack, and that every resource if made available to our families in need within our community!"

This story is written by Julie Montanaro. It was posted on April 7, 2017 at wctv.tv

Boys Town was first made famous on the big screen in Hollywood in the 1930's.

"Boys Town is real. It's a drama greater than the imagination of Hollywood's greatest storytellers," the original Warner Brothers movie trailer begins.

It highlighted the work of Father Edward Flangan at his Omaha, Nebraska home for at risk children.

Spencer Tracy earned an Oscar for his portrayal of Father Flanagan in the film.

That Oscar is now in Tallahassee to help "Boys Town" celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Boys Town historian Thomas Lynch traveled all the way from Omaha
carrying that statue under lock and key.

Spencer Tracy donated it to Boys Town.

"Father Flanagan received the Oscar from Spencer Tracy the day after he received it in 1939. Father was actually ill in bed and we have pictures of him holding it in his pajamas and then he placed it on his desk and kept it there for ten years until he passed away."

Those willing to wear white gloves can hold the autographed Oscar and take pictures with it at Boys Town's annual gala.

"An Oscar is something people are very interested in and many people are amazed at how heavy the Oscar is," Lynch said. "They just love to see it because they see it on t.v. and they can actually hold one."

The Oscar is usually under lock and key in a museum. It'll be on display at Friday night's sold out Spirit of Youth gala.

That gala is the biggest fundraiser of the year for Boys Town here in Tallahassee.

It has helped nearly 800 children in the past year cope with abuse and anger and start to believe in themselves.

Boys Town alum Ashley Jackson says she is living proof that all things are possible.

Ashley Jackson got her first degree from FAMU.

She's now working on her master's at Florida State.

We met at the "Unconquered" statue. It couldn't be more apt.

"You begin to develop a hopelessness in people, because you know you've seen so much bad," Jackson said.

Jackson survived years of abuse, bouncing from foster home to foster home before landing at Boys Town.

"Boys Town actually made my 15th foster home," she said.

Jackson was thrust into foster care at the age of seven. By 15, she says, she was angry and lashing out.

"All the other foster homes, all the other people in my life, they gave up on me, which didn't help because I had given up on myself, you know? But when I got to Boys Town, they didn't," Jackson said. "Because they believed in me so much, it caused me to start believing in me."

This vivacious 26 year old is now determined to be a voice for other foster kids and share the words she was so desperate to hear - and believe - herself.

"You are capable. You are intelligent and you have the willpower and potential to accomplish anything you want to accomplish. Don't let anyone tell you you can't. Always know that you can," she said.

Ashley will be headed to Washington, D.C. next month for an internship in Congressman Al Lawson's office.

This is just one of the success stories that Boys Town is celebrating.

It directly helped more than 8,000 kids in Florida in 2016 and tens of thousands more nationwide.

​Florida residents recently brought out their golf clubs and gathered into teams of four in hopes of earning the top score among the competition at Boys Town North Florida's Annual Winter Classic Golf Tournament.

This year's tournament marked the event's 24^th year since it first began. To live up to the previous year's lavish venues, this year's Christmas Classic was held at the Golden Eagle Golf and Country Club in Tallahassee on Monday, December 12, 2016. Under the leadership of chairman, Eric Sharkey of Residential Elevators, a little over 150 players, volunteers, employees and youth gathered at the sold out event.

Teams of four teed-off at 10 a.m. while guest enjoyed the food and beverage vendors available. Staff members and youth from Boys Town North Florida's programs greeted and welcomed guests with holiday cookies at the Tasty Pastry Vendor tent as they arrived.

The large turnout of guests and outstanding commitment of the competitors resulted in an impactful amount of $60,000 raised to support Boys Town's North Florida's programs and services.

The top three gross winning teams were Tallahassee Ford Lincoln in first place with a score of 56, Residential Elevators coming in second place scoring 57, and Carr Allison taking third place with a score of 58.

"It was a fabulous Golf Tournament, and I thank our chairman, Eric Sharkey for leading this effort and look forward to his chairmanship during our 100^th Anniversary Year and at our 25^th Annual Christmas Classic Golf Tournament!" Dena Strickland, Boys Town North Florida Development Director said.

Boys Town North Florida extends a thank you to the following corporate sponsors for another successful event:

Event Sponsors: Eric and Hollie Sharkey, Centennial Bank, DRMP, Legacy Toyota, Bobby Dick & Merril Lynch Bank of American Corporation, Residential Elevators, Tallahassee Democrat, Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A., Bud Warehouses, Carr Allison Law Firm, Earl Bacon Agency, FMI Business Systems, Hancock Bank, Jersey Mike's Subs, Jim Moran Institute, The Kupiszewski Family, McKee Insurance Agency, Miller's Tree Service, NAI TALCOR, Pennington P.A., Prime Meridian Bank, Rodrigue & Rodrigue, and Rogers, Gunter, Vaughan Insurance Inc., Southern Fidelity Insurance Group, Summit Group/Mad Dog Construction, Syn-Tech System, Tallahassee Ford Lincoln and TriCon Builders.

Hole Sponsors: BB&T, Benners Contracting, Dr. Joe & Marion Camps, Centennial Mortgage, Clark Partington, Demont Insurance Agency Inc., Electronet Broadband Communications, Farmers & Merchants Bank, Ferguson Plumbing, Florida Fence & Deck, Genesis, Ghost Controls, Sandy & Mark Goldman, Hunt & Hunt Interiors, Todd & Jeri Hunter, James Campbell & Associates, Lloyd Roofing & Construction Inc., Madison Social, Moe's Southwest Grill, RaGZ, Bill Reardon-State Farm Insurance, Riley Palmer Construction Company, Ryder, Southern Home Consultants Inc., Tallahassee State Bank, TRS Inc. and Whitaker Construction Group Inc.

Vender Sponsors: Ace Hardware, Edwin Watts Golf, The Egg, Eye Associates of Tallahassee, Gabriel Hanway, Golden Eagle Golf & Country Club, Moe's Southwest Grill, Signs 4 Today, Starbucks, Tallahassee Ford Lincoln, Tasty Pastry Baker, What A Graphic! and Tri-Eagle Sales.

​​​Boys Town stabilizes the lives of displaced children

This article is written by Steve Bornhoft. It was posted on tallahasseemagazine.com in January 2017. The photos are copyrighted by Lawrence Davidson.

After four years working as a correctional officer, Craig Shelton was ready to make a career move. His wife, Victoria, newly graduated from Florida State University, was — she would find out — ready to start hers.

The couple paused when they spied an online job posting: Boys Town North Florida was looking for a teaching couple to lead a household of six teenage girls.

"I was the product of a poor family, but I got involved in church at a young age, and a family there took me under their wing and helped raise me," Craig said. "I had always wanted to help kids in the way that I had been supported, and Boys Town seemed to me to be the perfect opportunity to do so."

Victoria had planned to "go straight through" to a master's degree in social work.

"Working right away wasn't part of the plan, but once we read about the opening at Boys Town, we couldn't let it go," she said. "It's not just a job; it's a lifestyle. If you don't feel like you are called to do it — whether by a higher power or because it's your purpose in life to give back to children, you are probably not going to last very long.

"We were called."

The Sheltons had been married for two years when they signed one-year commitments to Boys Town. Two years later, they have no plans to leave any time soon.

Victoria grew up in Crawfordville as the oldest among seven siblings. For her, the prospect of a large family was "just like a regular day."

Guidelines for the Boys Town Family Home Program are established at the headquarters office in Omaha. But the household presided over by the Sheltons is an exercise, said Marcus Lampkin, Boys Town North Florida's senior director of program operations, in "self-governance."

Children are afforded a chance to "appeal the negatives" when disciplined. At family meetings conducted in the living room after the evening meal, cases are pleaded and "consequences" may be raised, left unchanged, lowered or removed by decision of the group.

But far more often than not, those family meetings have to do with positives: sharing accomplishments, planning outings, playing board games. 

The children — girls were first enrolled in Boys Town programs in 1979 — take turns serving as the household manager, and chores are rotated among them. Girls newly arrived at the house are required to stay in constant contact with a family teacher, but soon cross a "bridge" to greater independence.

Privileges include placing three foods that the girls would rather not eat on a "Yuck List." Broccoli is prominent among the foods listed.   

Children come to the Family Home Program after participating in other Boys Town programs; through referrals by social service or juvenile justice agencies; or through placements made by parents or other caregivers. The average length of stay is 12 to 18 months; children age out of the program at 18.

After Boys Town, children may return to their families, join an adoptive family or undertake independent living.

"We are here to play the roles of typical parents," Victoria said, "and to provide stability to children that have been through lots of transitions. Here, they see the same people every day."

The Sheltons recognize that one day, they, too, will graduate from Boys Town, and the children they will be mentoring at that time will have another shift to deal with.

Celebrating a Centennial of Service

Boys Town North Florida's 14th annual Spirit of Youth Gala will celebrate Boys Town's 100 years of caring for children with love, respect and dignity.

"Boys Town has delivered a century of help for every child, strength for every family and hope for every community," said Boys Town North Florida development director Dena Strickland, quoting the centennial slogan adopted by Boys Town programs throughout the country.

Those programs, founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan in Omaha in 1917, rely on a combination of public funds and community support.

The local gala, chaired by Matt and Sheri Bryan and Tim and Jill Meenan, will take place Friday, April 7, at the University Center Club. Boys Town North Florida currently is seeking event sponsors and donations of silent auction items.

Contact Strickland at (850) 504-5007 for further information about this and other centennial events.​

​​​​​​​​This story aired on CBS Sunday Morning and was posted on cbsnews.com on December 25, 2016.

"There's no place like home." Rarely is that truer than this time of year. Our Christmas Cover Story is all about a very special home for some very needy children, as reported by Tony Dokoupil:

Right near the midpoint of America, ten miles outside of Omaha, Nebraska, there's a town that sits between childhood and whatever comes after.

"These young people are about to become citizens of the most famous village in the world," said Father Stephen Boes at a swearing-in ceremony.

In this town, almost every kid is at a crossroads -- and the goal of all the grown-ups here is to help kids leave Boys Town behind.

"I do solemnly promise … that I will be a good citizen."

Eighteen-year-old Chase Pruss, from Dodge, Neb., was sworn in here six months ago --  arriving, like a lot of the kids, straight from jail.

"I took the school safe," he said.  "Just for money. For Beer money. And gas money. And buy cigarettes."

Two more break-ins followed, and Pruss ended up arrested in front of his bewildered parents. "My mom was crying, my dad was crying," he said.

He had run through four different schools, stolen and lied.

And he faced 80 years in prison, ​until a judge helped get him into Boys Town. "I ​​had that mindset of, "I never want to ever ​put myself in the position where I could land myself back in an orange jumpsuit," Pruss said. "I never ​wanted my ​jail ID ​number to say ​who I was."

Seventeen-year-old Andre Harris came to Boys Town the same way.  Nearly three years ago, back in Amarillo, Texas, he stole a car, and ended up in juvenile detention.

"I didn't feel like I was gonna amount to anything after that," he told Dokoupil.  

Frankly, he didn't think he'd amount to much before jail, either. College seemed out of reach. He can't remember hearing someone say they were proud of him.

Dokoupil said of Boys Town, "More felons per capita here than any town in Nebraska."

"Probably!" Harris laughed. "But we're all doing our best to change."

Almost every week here at Boys Town, new boys (and since 1979, new girls, too) are sent by social workers, judges and desperate parents. Most of the kids have been unable to live anywhere else without getting in trouble.

And Boys Town is their last chance.

"A lot of people would say they're bad kids," Dokoupil said. "Is that how they see themselves when they get here?"

"Some of our kids do," replied Tony Jones, one of Boys Town's "family teachers." "They see themselves as, you know, on the bottom of the totem pole."

And how do they change that mindset? "You show them that this is your decision. This is your life."

Jones and his wife, Simone, run one of 55 homes on campus. Eight Boys Town children live there like a family, alongside the Jones' three biological kids.

"Every single young man that has come through my home has now become a part of my family," Jones said.

This is a large part of what makes Boys Town so powerful; all 360 kids living here have paid Boys Town parents like Tony and Simone.

"It's a professional, full-time Dad, brother, uncle, cousin -- whatever my boys may need me to be at that particular time in their life, that, then, is who I become for them," Jones said.

He began at Boys Town as a boy himself. He was born to a shattered family in Detroit. "I can recall my brother and I standing at a bus stop, and it was in the dead of winter. And we only had one pair of socks to share between the two us," Jones laughed.

But then a priest gave the Jones brothers a chance to change their lives at Boys Town. "It was a total transformation," he said.

Dokoupil asked, "Where do you think you would be if you had said no to Boys Town?"

"Oh, two places: I would either be incarcerated, or I would be dead."

The Jones story is typical of a hundred years of stories at Boys Town, which began in 1917 as Father Flanagan's Home for Boys. The most beloved clergyman in America, he created arguably the most famous reform school in the world.

Of his charges, Father Flanagan said, "His bruised and tortured heart and mind must be nursed back to normal health through kindness."

You may remember a 1938-Oscar winning movie about the place starring Spencer Tracy. But what you probably don't know is it's a real town, with a real post office and police department.

At about $65,000 per student per year, Boys Town is comparable to a top private college -- and it's mostly taxpayers footing the bill.

But taxpayers pay for prisons, too -- more than $39 billion a year nationally. Boys Town says it can help keep those prison cells empty, while nearly doubling the chance that these students will graduate from high school.

Dokoupil asked Jones, "How do you avoid coming in and being just another person telling them all the things they're doing wrong?"

"By telling them all the things they're doing right," Jones replied. "That's how you help kids change. It's being able to say, 'Hey, young man, you did a good job this morning getting up.'"

"It almost sounds like a joke."

"Well, you know something? That little praise goes a long way."

That little praise goes all the way back to Father Flanagan's ​founding idea: "There are no bad boys."

And if that all sounds too pat to be successful … well, the results say otherwise.

When asked where he would be without Boys Town, Chase Pruss replied, "I'd be in lockup." As did another.

And if that all sounds too pat to be successful, just listen to the results. Tesharr said, "I've been here for a short amount of time. But since my first day I didn't feel like I was in a place where I couldn't leave. I felt like I was home."

Of course, the Boys Town way does not work for every child who comes here; there are failures. But for Chase's parents, Dan and Trish, it's been nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

Dokoupil asked them, "Who was Chase before Boys Town and who is he today?"

"He was dishonest, disrespectful, a thief," said his mother. "And now he is the Chase that I always wanted him to be."

For Andre Harris, the change has been no less dramatic since stealing that car. "It's not even the same person," he said.

And how is he different? "My actions, the way I speak. I've grown up. I've become a young man."

He's a school leader now … a star on the track team … and he's just found out he's headed to college next year.

But first, he's headed to Amarillo for the holidays … a place he hasn't seen in nearly three years. It's a place that Boys Town has been preparing him for since the very day he made his grand theft exit:

It's home.

"This is my Christmas gift," Robert Harris told Dokoupil. "This is all I wanted!"

​​​​"Great!"

This simple statement is how a young boy of few words describes what it means to finally have his own forever family. 

De'Andre Fargason is an energetic 13-year-old with a "kind soul and beautiful smile." In March 2016, he was adopted from a Boys Town North Florida Family Home, where he had lived for two and a half years.

Today, De'Andre is surrounded by the love and stability of his new family – parents Renee and Patrick Fargason and three new siblings – who opened their hearts and embraced the teen as a son and brother.

Few would have predicted such a positive situation, given where De'Andre was just a few short years ago.

At the age of 10, he was left at an emergency shelter. It was the culmination of a tumultuous period in his young life.

De'Andre's mother was emotionally erratic. Parenting often overwhelmed her, and she frequently left De'Andre in the care of his grandmother. That arrangement, however, proved less than idyllic. Older and in poor health, Grandma's old-school approach to dealing with her grandson's mischief and defiance included heavy doses of physical punishment.

One unfortunate, yet inevitable, result of that abuse was a deep pool of pent-up resentment. 

According to De'Andre's Boys Town North Florida Family-Teachers^®, Misty and Trinity Mackley, being told "No" was the trigger that led to many frustrating moments for the young boy in their care.

"Anger was his main issue throughout his time at Boys Town. He had trouble communicating his feelings verbally at home and school, so he would break things," explained Misty.

Addressing his anger issues took patience and a lot of teaching.

The Mackleys worked closely with De'Andre's elementary school in setting behavioral expectations and boundaries. Misty and Trinity also taught coping skills, including self-calming strategies, so he could take more control of his actions. This skill-based approach empowered De'Andre not to be a victim or a slave to his emotions.

When efforts to reunite De'Andre with his mom, who lived out of state, were unsuccessful, he became eligible for adoption. Eventually, the Wendy's Wonderful Kids Program helped connect the Fargasons with De'Andre and the Mackleys.

"De'Andre gave us a tour of his Boys Town home, and we shared a meal. He was very sweet," said Renee.

It was a gradual getting-to-know-you process. Renee and Patrick worked with the Mackleys over a four-month period to prepare themselves and De'Andre for their new life together.  

"De'Andre made deep connections with the Mackley family. He trusts them, and we continue to foster that relationship. I'm grateful to them, and know they truly love him," said Renee.

After nearly three years in the Family Home Program, the boy who was quick to destroy property during fits of anger had become a role model and protector to other youth.  

Now De'Andre is protective of his siblings and his forever family. He's embracing ​the role of big brother. He's making ​​happy memories. And best of all, he's feeling great about where he is and who he is.

​This blog post was posted on ustaflorida.com by Kelly Tucker.

Boys Town North Florida finished up its summer tennis program in early September with approximately 15-20 foster children who ​live in one of the group homes located on the organization's campus in Tallahassee.

Boys Town North Florida has been serving abused, neglected, and/or abandoned children and ​​families since 1983 by partnering with local area agencies and businesses to enhance the quality and variety of care provided in the community.

Boys Town received a grant from the USTA Florida Section Foundation last year and is now working with volunteers from the Tallahassee Tennis Association and Tallahassee Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Affairs to provide kids an opportunity to ​play tennis once a week at the LeVerne F. Payne Community Center's tennis courts off Fourth Avenue.

The program will begin its fall season in early October.