Youth For Tomorrow, Helping At-risk Teenagers

Youth For Tomorrow, Bristow Virginia

BristowEnews.com met with Dr. Gary Jones and Donna Mahoney of Youth For Tomorrow in Bristow, Virginia to find out about their work and the history of the center. Many area residents pass by their campus everyday without knowing the purpose of this facility and what the community can do to help.

Dr. Jones said that Coach Joe Gibbs is the founder and on the Board of Directors of Youth For Tomorrow. Prior to his work with the Washington Redskins, Coach Gibbs would always go into communities such as Tampa and St. Louis, as well as many other areas and talk to teenage boys. While he was in Washington during the 1982 NFL players strike, instead of playing golf he spoke to teens and he had a 16 year old boy come up to him with tears in eyes saying "If I could read, I could fill out a job application and get a job." This gave the impetus for Joe to find out what he could do to help. He learned about a program in Texas run by Tom Landry and Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys. Joe saw that they had a Christian Youth Home and decided that was what he wanted to do.

n the fall of 1983 Youth For Tomorrow was formed and one hundred and thirty-four acres of property were purchased in Bristow, Virginia. The doors were opened in 1986 and in the year 2000, sixty-five more acres of property were purchased. To date Youth For Tomorrow has served over eight hundred boys and girls. Youth For Tomorrow is licensed by the State Department of Social Services in Richmond with a secondary license by the Department of Education. Youth For Tomorrow has constant site reviews that look at the center's procedures.

Youth For Tomorrow is a home for at risk teenagers. All of the students reside on campus and are sent her by probation officers, foster home officials, social service workers or juvenile court authorities. Teens come to get their lives turned around from drug and alcohol abuse or because they have no parents or have been abused in foster care or by step parents. They all come with emotional and psychological baggage from the abusive living conditions and are relieved and gratified to have a safe place to live.

Over the twenty years that Youth For Tomorrow has been in existence, they have developed a five part program which includes education, counseling and residential living. Also included are evaluations on personal hygiene as well as responsibilities for keeping their rooms clean. They are graded on their manners, or how well they are performing, in addition to how well they do in their school work, such as achievements on national standard tests. During the week they have both individual and group counseling sessions. For example, if an individual was involved with drugs they receive counseling on chemical dependency.

Each year Youth For Tomorrow has roughly one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and forty students. There are eighty-eight beds on campus, so the totals include those who are graduating and those coming into the facility. For approximately 16 years Youth For Tomorrow was strictly serving boys and only opened its doors to girls within the last four years. Currently there are more girls on campus than boys. In 2003 five brand new homes were constructed for girls.

Children come from twenty-three different political jurisdictions throughout Virginia including Prince William, Manassas, Manassas Park, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, and Culpepper all the way to the West Virginia border, and going south toward Richmond. The success rate is about seventy percent and approximately seventy-five to eighty percent do not revert to their prior behavior. Usually children with family problems are the easier ones to deal with than those with drug problems. Most girls and boys stay three to four years. Former students go back to family, if they have one or they go on to college, trade school or military life. About twenty former graduates are currently serving in Afghanistan. There is one college professor, a youth pastor in Montana, a forest ranger in North Carolina and some graduates are currently working on staff at Youth For Tomorrow. Two boys formed a successful high tech company in North Carolina and Virginia. A lot of graduates are in the building or trade industries or are beauticians and barbers. Youth For Tomorrow has a fully endowed college scholarship program so they can offer individual $10,000 college scholarships per year.

Youth For Tomorrow charges for each child in the program but it is usually not enough to cover the annual costs so the center must raise approximately three million annually to help defer costs. There are four fundraisers per year with the most popular being the Country Fair hosted by Joe Gibbs, which is held every October on the campus grounds, with rides and food included with the nominal entry fee. For more information about the event or to be a sponsor, see the Youth For Tomorrow web site at: http://www.youthfortomorrow.org Youth For Tomorrow also has a great need of basic hygiene products, bedding and bath items that are desired within each of the homes. Churches or groups interested in adopting a home for eight residents may also contact Youth for Tomorrow at 703-631-3660 if they would like to assist in this area.

 

Date Published: 2007-08-08 06:00:00

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