June 08, 2010

Boys & Girls Town Receives Grant to Expand Emergency Shelter to Serve 18 Year-Old Homeless Youth

SPRINGFIELD, MO (June 7, 2010) – Boys & Girls Town of Missouri has received a $25,000 Community Development Block Grant from the City of Springfield to expand their Empowering Youth program to include 18 year-olds. Empowering Youth provides emergency shelter services for homeless youth at the agency’s Ozarks Family Resource Center, and currently is only funded to provide services to children ages 10-17. The addition of this new grant will insure that the entire youth age spectrum is served at Boys & Girls Town.

The Empowering Youth program serves homeless youth in Southwest Missouri by providing support and guidance to help transition to safe, stable homes. Homeless adolescents often suffer from severe anxiety and depression, poor health and nutrition, and low self-esteem.  Empowering Youth offers a safe, nurturing environment with food, clothing, shelter, education, job training and counseling services.

The grant supplies Boys & Girls Town with the resources to serve at least 20 additional youth over the next year for a maximum of 14 days each. Since opening in 2006, Empowering Youth has served 150 youth with shelter services. 

Empowering Youth help lines can be reached 24 hours a day at (417) 864-3953 and (417) 864-3952.

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About Great Circle
Established as a result of the merger of Boys & Girls Town of Missouri and Edgewood Children’s Center, Great Circle provides treatment, education, prevention and support services to children with a history of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, neglect or abandonment. Great Circle’s mission to “reshape vulnerable lives through a community of partners, teachers and leaders, giving children and families the confidence to create bright futures” is fulfilled through campuses in St. Louis, Columbia, Springfield and St. James, Missouri. As one of the children’s non-for-profit services in Missouri, the organization annually serves approximately 7,800 children and family members and employs more than 700 staff members. For more information please visit www.great-circle.org.