Greetings from Rhode Island! After enduring a near-record breaking January snowstorm and the continuation of the pandemic, we are all excited that spring is coming. We have faced many challenges the last year, but I am so proud to serve as Executive Director of Boys Town New England. Our staff is passionately committed to making an impact on the lives of the youth, families, schools and communities we work with.
In this newsletter you will read about a girl who lives here on our Bazarsky Portsmouth campus and how her life has been positively impacted since arriving a year ago. You will also read about one of our family home teachers and how he has turned the challenges he faced in his early life into successes that he now uses while working with the teenagers who face many of the same challenges.
These are just two of many success stories that serve as the motivation for what we all do. And that includes all of you who continue to support our mission. I can never say thank you enough to each one of you.
I am thrilled to share with you all our LIFT Together expansion within Pawtucket. When we started this program several years ago in two elementary schools, our goal was to expand to have a greater impact on the school system and community at large. Due to the efforts of Senior Director Eli Escrogin and her entire staff, our impact will now be felt in three additional middle schools and two high schools, all in Pawtucket! At a time when our schools are really struggling due to the pandemic, it is so exciting that we are realizing our goal of increasing the impact of Boys Town in Pawtucket.
Our Common Sense Parenting® programs (CSP) had over 120 participants, held 20 CSP classes and 12 parenting cafés this past year. Some of the funding for this program was thanks to our first-ever $25,000 grant from the Yawkey Foundation.
Nearly 200 youth were served through our Foster Care Programs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. At a time when many youths in both states need stable and safe families to care for them, we are actively recruiting to increase the impact we can have.
After going without a development staff for several months, I am excited to welcome Glenn Hofmann as our new Director and Julie Sherman as our new Coordinator. You can read about Glenn and Julie's backgrounds in this newsletter. We have big plans in this area, including a more focused effort on continuous engagement with our supporters. No doubt many of you will be hearing from Glenn in the coming months.
These are just some of the exciting things that are happening with Boys Town New England. While my tenure as Executive Director has been a bit strange, given I arrived in Portsmouth just before the pandemic, I am so proud of what the Boys Town community has accomplished and I am equally as excited about our plans for the future.
- Sarah Galvan, Executive Director