Boys & Girls Town provides a wide range of Community Based Services to meet the needs of children and families. The successful treatment of children and youth with emotional, behavioral and psychological problems is often closely tied to the type of environment and support systems that are available upon the child's return home.
Outreach Treatment Services
Boys & Girls Town offers a community network of family therapists for individual and family counseling. Referrals may come through parents, schools or our residential services. This program offers counseling, therapy and interventions to address emotional and behavioral challenges faced by many youth. Through our residential services, treatment and therapy is coordinated so that youth in placement may participate in family sessions within their community to enable the youth to return home more quickly.
Community Treatment Homes
Like foster care, homes under the supervision of Boys & Girls Town provide short-term community placement for children transitioning from residential treatment to a less restrictive, yet therapeutic home setting. Each home is licensed through the State of Missouri and assigned a community treatment home Case Manager from Boys & Girls Town to coordinate the strength-based team approach for each family.
Independent Supported Living
This twelve to fifteen month program enables young people between the ages of 17-21 to develop the skills they will need to live independently in their communities. Support services include weekly allowance, assistance with rent and other bills, supervision by an independent living coordinator and weekly visits with a social worker. Participants must pursue educational opportunities and work at least part-time.
Foster Care Case Management
Foster Care Case Management is available in the Springfield and St. Louis regions to serve youth and families through the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division. Case Managers provide family-centered services to youth in the state's custody and their families in order to establish safety, stabilization and permanency.
Intensive In-Home Services
Intensive In-Home Services is a four- to six-week crisis-intervention program designed to help keep families together safely. A family specialist works directly with family members in their home. Family members may receive individual and family counseling, parenting education, child development training, household maintenance education, nutritional training, job readiness training, and referral to other community resources. Referrals for this program are made to Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division by concerned family members, mental health providers, school personnel, social service providers, juvenile courts, hospitals. Children’s Division then places the family in the care of agencies providing these special services, such as Boys & Girls Town.
Fostering Futures
Fostering Futures helps foster parents enhance their parenting skills. The goal of Fostering Futures is to decrease the number of foster home placements experienced by children in foster care who struggle with emotional and behavior problems and keep them from entering residential care or living on the streets. Weekly connections allow behavior specialists to provide guidance, support and crisis intervention to foster parents and children in their care. The knowledge foster parents gain from these interactions is used to improve the home environment for the children currently in foster care and those who will be placed in the home in the future.
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