Partner Highlight: Life After “Boys Town”

We are joined by one of our community partners, Boys Town, for a highlight of their services and how our partnership helps to further the lives of young people in New Orleans.

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Boys Town Louisiana gives desperate kids hope, helps parents succeed, and keeps families together. Our ultimate goal is to give kids and families the tools they need to help lead successful, healthy, and happy lives.

But what happens after they leave Boys Town Louisiana?

We collaborate with local organizations to make sure our kids and families continue on the path to success; one of these partnerships is with Liberty’s Kitchen. Specifically, BTL’s Family Home Program has referred 5 clients to date to the LK Job Training Program.

In the Family Home Program, Louisiana youth who cannot be with their families come together to stay in a single-family home, led by a Family-Teaching couple.  These parental role models take the kids to school, help them make dinner, hold them accountable to chores, and overall create a stable home environment they may have never had.

Upon entering the Family Home program, BTL staff assesses the needs of each child, including educational, vocational, and health. From there, we provide linkages to care to connect your youth to the path of individualized success; this is where Liberty’s Kitchen comes in.

If a youth expresses interest in learning the culinary industry and meets the appropriate criteria, we make an official referral the LK Youth Development Training Program. Since the boys in our Family Homes help with cooking dinner each night, our family teachers can teach them practical, home skills, and even encourage them to join LK if it seems like a good fit.

In our Family Home program, our Family Teachers are with our residential youth every step of the way. After life at BTL, it is a blessing to have a community partner like Liberty’s Kitchen continue to support our youth in their success, whether that be reaching educational goals, securing and retaining a job, or navigating social and health services.

Together, Boys Town Louisiana and Liberty’s Kitchen work together to give vulnerable youth in Louisiana opportunities they would not have otherwise.  Our organizations see children and families every day that have been hit hard by social and economic problems; but more importantly, we see them persevere and make great strides through our programs.

Between our two organizations, we can provide wrap-around services and tools needed for opportunity youth to achieve employability, economic independence, and overall, a bright and happy future.

Guest blog post by:

Julia Turkevich, Louisana Donor Relations Specialist, Boys Town Louisiana