Summer is in full gear and many exciting things happened this past Spring at Boys & Girls Village. I am excited to share them with you as well as what we can expect in the coming months. To start, we were re-awarded the Multisystemic Therapy-Problem Sexual Behavior (MST-PSB) program for New Haven and Fairfield Counties. This in-home program assists male and female youth who have engaged in harmful sexual behavior, change their patterns of behavior and prevent reoffending. We also bid on and won a new program, Parent and Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), which will become part of our clinic services offered in both Bridgeport and Milford! This evidence-based treatment focuses on improving the bond between young children and their caregivers by enhancing their engagement and interactions. Finally, I am pleased to announce that we marked the 1-year anniversary of the Kraft House opening in April!
In addition to these accomplishments, this May we held our first in-person Wellness Fair for employees since the pandemic. Many of our board members and staff compiled “relaxation baskets” which were raffled off. We celebrated Juneteenth with some delicious traditional foods. This June also marked Charles F. Hayden’s graduation and end-of-the-school-year celebrations. There was record attendance by family members with over 80 individuals attending the lower school and 100+ the upper school! Congratulations to our graduates and all the youth moving to the next grade level or back to their home schools.
Regarding things to come, BGV hopes to begin breaking ground this Fall for our new upper school addition! In April we were awarded funds from the Nonprofit Grant Program (NGP) of $1.2 million to support this construction. We have already started on the preliminary work. (see rendering below).
In closing, none of these accomplishments would be possible without our fantastic and dedicated staff, board of directors, and donors like you.
Thank you for supporting BGV and helping us to further our mission by touching the lives of more youth and families!
Sincerely,
Kim Shaunesey, President & CEO
Dear Friend of BGV:
Today is a special day to say “thank-you!" BGV has been able to continue growing and adapting to meet the changing needs of at-risk families in Connecticut. We have impressive growth, adding new programs to ensure we are treating as many needs as possible. Some new programs over the past couple years include:
Quality Parenting Centers (QPC)
BGV now operates two QPC’s, one in Milford and one in Bridgeport. This program offers supervised visits between a child and their family from whom they’ve been removed. Designed to preserve and restore the parent/child attachment, BGV uses a “Visit Coaching Model” that occurs in the least restrictive, most homelike setting possible and reduces the child’s sense of abandonment and loss. Our goal is always to return the child to his or her family when possible. The QPC’s served 108 individuals in 2023.
STAR
For adolescent boys who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, the Enhanced STAR Program, a short-term care facility with trauma treatment, substance use therapy, and family engagement, opened last year in Bridgeport. STAR provided care to 29 boys in 2023.
The Kraft House
The Kraft House is a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) on the Milford campus providing inpatient psychiatric services under the direction of a physician to boys ages 12-18 including clients with substance use disorder (SUD). Kraft House is a 12-bed program and can be used to avoid a more restrictive placement, such as hospitalization, or as a step-down from a more restrictive placement. This home opened in June 2023 and 26 individuals have been housed there so far.
Work to Learn and Vocational Learning Center
Our vocational programming has had many exciting additions over the past year including:
· A food truck for Work to Learn’s new youth-run business, Dynamic Dining: A Culinary Melting Pot. Work to Learn provides youth ages 16-21 educational and vocational services to help them successfully transition into adulthood.
· Our Vocational Learning Center added two new forklift/backhoe simulators to its vocational skills curriculum. The simulators provide training with various levels of certification and allow our older students a pathway to future work possibilities in environments that require operating heavy equipment.
All of our other work, including Therapeutic Foster Care, the Hayden School, outpatient therapy, in-home individual and family therapy, reunification programs, and parent support programs, continues to thrive thanks to the important support of donors like you.
In Fiscal Year 2023:
- BGV served 906 unique clients
- 32% of all clients come from Bridgeport and 71% come from Fairfield County
- Our behavioral therapy programs had a 97% satisfaction rate among families of children served.
- 70% of children in Therapeutic Foster Care found a permanent home including family reunification, adoptive family, relative, or independent living situation.
- 88% of families were reunited after participating in our Reunification program
- 75% of clients in Safe Haven house for Problem Sexual Behavior showed a significant increase in functioning or a decrease in problem severity.
On behalf of the children and families in BGV's vast array of programs and services, I thank you for continuing to support our mission!
Kim Shaunesey, Ph.D. President & CEO
