Boys & Girls Town’s Springfield campus is centrally located on eight acres within the city limits. Formerly the Springfield Children’s Home, Boys & Girls Town purchased the facilities in 1989 from the City of Springfield. The campus was newly rebuilt in 1998, and now includes six cottages that provide living quarters for 69 children, a gymnasium, chapel, recreation complex and outdoor swimming pool.
The Ozarks Family Resource Center emergency shelter is also located on the campus.

Residential Treatment Program
The residential treatment program on the Springfield campus includes Intensive Treatment Units and Intermediate Treatment Units.

Intensive Treatment
Intensive Treatment Units offers a safe, secure and structured environment for youth who are at risk of suicide, running away, self-inflicted injury, violence and extreme aggressive behavior. Intensive Treatment offers special features to ensure this environment including an audio/video security monitoring system, locked entry/exit and self-contained, on-site classrooms.

Intermediate Treatment
Intermediate Treatment Units offer programming and security comparable to the intensive treatment units, however the therapeutic structure offer more independence.

The Lucille Sherer Home is an intermediate treatment cottage for 11 girls located about one mile from campus. The residents have the opportunity to attend public school and have after school jobs. Some of the girls take independent living classes.

Independent Supported Living
The Independent Supportive Living Program gives young men and women, ages 17-20, the opportunity to live in their own apartment in the Springfield community. This supportive, real life experience enables the youth to develop the skills to become self-sufficient. Youth receive a weekly allowance and help managing their bills from an independent living coordinator.

Educational Services
On the Springfield campus, all educational services are provided in cooperation with the Springfield R-12 school district. Residents either attend the Springfield public schools, the Springfield Options Site or self-contained classrooms on the Boys & Girls Town campus.

Other Services Available
Based on individual need, a combination of these services are available to all residents:
• Psychiatric and psychological assessments and evaluations
• Individual, group and family therapy
• On-site medical services
• Outreach services
• Recreational therapy
• Equestrian therapy
• School in the Wilderness

Ozarks Family Resource Center
Working in partnership with the Council of Churches of the Ozarks and other community organizations, Boys & Girls Town founded the Ozarks Family Resource Center in 2001. The Center provides emergency shelter and assessment for up to 16 children, ages birth to 17, who have been removed from crisis situations. The center also offers shelter, counseling and other services for homeless youth.

The Center includes a nursery, day care, nursing department, kitchen, internal courtyard and playground. Each room is monitored via a closed circuit television. The facility meets state licensing requirements for emergency childcare. In addition to providing short-term shelter, the Center enables children to stay closer to their homes, allows siblings to stay together and provides psychological assessments to determine the best possible long-term placement for the children.

Foster Care Case Management
Boys & Girls Town serves as the private agency provider for foster care case management in Greene County. Boys & Girls Town works in conjunction with other private agencies to find placement for 210 children in custody of Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division.

Family care managers meet face to face with the child, a parent/guardian and the child’s out of home care provider to ensure services are tailored to meet the needs of the child and family. The ultimate goal is to reunite the child with his/her biological parents, but if it becomes evident it is detrimental to the child’s well-being and safety other permanent placement options are sought.

Admissions Information
Admission into one of Boys & Girls Town’s programs is fast, confidential and focused on addressing the needs of the child and family.

Children are referred to by the Department of Social Services Children’s Division, Department of Mental Health, Division of Youth Services, the court system, insurance and managed care companies, employee assistance professionals, parents or other guardians. Referrals may come from Missouri or any other state. Children placed at our residential treatment program must meet basic admission criteria including ages six to 17, availability of bed space, a current diagnosis and the family’s ability to pay through either public or private sources.

Common diagnostic characteristics include: attention deficit disorder, anti-social behavior, bi-polar disorder, conduct disorder, depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and suicidal ideations.

Boys & Girls Town placement experts work with families to identify all available public and private resources to ensure that each child gets the help he or she needs. The cost of treatment programs are covered by most insurance plans.

Most children remain at Boys & Girls Town for six to nine months, although length of stay is evaluated on an individual basis and can be influenced by the policies of the referral source, the child’s behavior, family circumstances and treatment team recommendations.

For information about Springfield referrals, please contact the Admissions Department at (417) 865-1646.

Where do Boys & Girls Town children go?
More than 80 percent of the youth leaving Boys & Girls Town residential care in 2007 returned to live with a parent or family member, or transitioned into foster care or independent living services. Others remained in residential care or moved to more restrictive environments such as hospitals.

How You Can Help
The success of Boys & Girls Town’s treatment of young people is a tribute to the generous support of the Springfield community and friends throughout Missouri. Those interested in helping these young people succeed may provide financial support to help maintain and develop programs, serve as a mentor, provide employment opportunities. Individuals, companies and civic groups interested in volunteering time and talent are welcome.

Boys & Girls Town of Missouri - Springfield Campus
1212 West Lombard
Springfield, MO 65806
Phone: (417) 865-1646
Fax: (417) 865-1483
www.bgtm.org