The Village of Boys Town has always been well-known as a place of miracles of the heart, where the lives of at-risk boys and girls are changed every day through compassionate, high-quality residential care.
Now, there's even more good news to celebrate about our Home Campus Family Home Program.
In April, the Teaching-Family Association (TFA) finalized its accreditation of the program after a rigorous five-day review in February. The review included personal observations by a team of four experienced evaluators and interviews with youth and Family-Teachers®. Accreditations occur every three years, and this most recent one continues Boys Town's long-term relationship with TFA.
The review covered nine technical areas and six Teaching-Family Model elements. In the nine technical areas, Boys Town received perfect or near-perfect scores in eight categories. In the Model elements, Boys Town achieved perfect scores in every area (Teaching, Self-Determination, Relationships, Family-Sensitive Approach, Diversity, Professionalism).
Evaluators' comments included:
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“Boys Town has phenomenal ratings based on standards."
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“We're blown away by the prevalence of excellence at all levels – culture, passion, professionalism."
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“There's a culture of excellence."
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“Situations happen, but the difference is how they respond and how it's handled. It's impressive!"
While the evaluation covered a number of program components, the personal side of the care we provide produced the most moving and significant comments. Here's what just of few of our kids told evaluators:
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“I am very blessed."
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“They really care."
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“They are really good people."
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“Our Family-Teachers believe in our resilience."
Comments from our Family-Teachers, like “We don't let kids fail" and “Our kids are invested in their time at Boys Town," mirrored the reflections of our boys and girls and our high scores.
“Earning this accreditation is a major achievement for our Home Campus," said Angie Powers, Home Campus Executive Director. “The excellent ratings we received validate everything we do and show that implementing an evidence-based, research-proven model of care in a large youth residential setting truly is effective in changing kids' lives and empowering them to find success at home, in school and in life.
“This is a credit to both our direct-care and support staff across our organization, who put our children first every day while strengthening them in body, mind and spirit. It also reinforces our advocacy efforts to ensure that quality residential care is available for youth who need a more intensive level of care to resolve their challenges."
With nearly 350 boys and girls living in 60 Family Homes, our Home Campus Family Home Program is one of the largest residential care communities in the country. Boys Town adopted the Teaching-Family Model in 1974, transitioning from a dormitory-style care approach to one that provides therapeutic care for youth in a family-style setting.
The Teaching-Family Association is an international organization with accredited agencies both in the United States and Canada. TFA was founded in 1975 to provide a framework for the quality of care provided by professionals who use the Teaching-Family Model in services for individuals, children and families.
The Association's mandate is to accredit member agencies that demonstrate quality programming. TFA recognizes and accredits high-fidelity programs, standardizes useful training and evaluation procedures, supervises program replication and provides annual conferences for sharing new material and program development. It's the only entity in North America that defines and implements standards and procedures related to the quality of treatment and service delivery systems at all organizational levels.
With over 30 years of studies and results, the Teaching-Family Model is one of the strongest and most studied evidence-based programs available for treatment. The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare recognizes the Teaching-Family Model as having “Promising Research Evidence" and has rated its “Child Welfare System Relevance Level" as High.
