The relationship between educational failure and poverty creates a vicious cycle that affects many children in our communities and negatively impacts our entire society. With an investment in each scholar's ability and promise, Boys Hope Girls Hope breaks the cycle of poverty through education.
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Boys Hope Girls Hope helps academically capable and motivated children-in-need to meet their full potential and become men and women for others by providing value-centered, family-like environments, opportunities and education through college.
We believe in opportunity, education and inclusion for every young person.
In 1977, Father Paul Sheridan, SJ, an educator in St. Louis, decided that he'd seen the promise of too many young lives extinguished by negative factors: overcrowded and underfunded schools; families distressed by poverty, illness, divorce, and death; neighborhoods shattered by drugs and violence.
He founded a program with a unique new approach to helping children reach their potential. A holistic, whole-person, "arms-around" approach. And he called it Boys Hope.
Since full potential can only be realized through education, he placed children in the top-rated schools best suited to their needs. He set high expectations - and gave his scholars everything they needed to meet them.
Because children need a stable home and family, he created family-style, non-institutional homes that recreated the family dynamic. In Boys Hope Girls Hope homes, committed houseparents provide crucial parenting; older scholars become older siblings and role models to younger ones; and all perform household chores together, cementing the family bonds.
To instill in his scholars the universal moral value of altruism, all scholars attended weekly services consistent with their religious backgrounds and participated in community service projects.
And he provided academic, financial, and spiritual support through college.
The program's success led to its rapid replication.
Today, Boys Hope Girls Hope homes can be found in 16 major cities and two foreign countries. The national organization provides accounting and marketing services and materials along with staff training for all local programs. Each city's Boys Hope Girls Hope is independently operated; governed by a local Board of Directors, managed by a local Executive Director, and responsible for its own programming, fundraising, special events and volunteers.
BHGH is recognized by the Educational Policy Institute in A Blueprint for Success: Case Studies of Successful Pre-College Outreach Programs. The EPI reviewed 1,100 programs and conducted an intensive six-month nationwide study of ten pre-college outreach programs including BHGH which were not attached to specific schools.
In Colorado, the Boys Hope home opened in 1993 and the Girls Hope home opened in 2010. In 2013, Colorado implemented the Academy, a non-residential program at struggling Aurora Central High School. In Colorado, BHGH has grown the number of scholars served by 238% in the past five years. Looking forward, the biggest area of growth will be in college programming as more and more scholars graduate from high school.
Hello my name is R'ron Fisher and I was born and raised in Aurora, Colorado. I was selected for Boys Hope Girls Hope four years ago by my Early Warning Intervention teacher, Mr. Ochoa. I wasn't the smartest kid in school but Mr. Ochoa saw something in me that I didn't: Potential. He saw that I had the potential to be great later in life. He was right. I know that Mr. Ochoa and the Boys Hope Girls Hope staff chose me to be a part of the program because I showed that I was determined to reach my full potential.
Because of Boys Hope Girls Hope, I have become a responsible, dependable, generous, selfless, outgoing, tender-hearted role model for my church, family and friends. Boys Hope Girls Hope was a huge part of my successes in High School. Some of these successes were graduating with Highest Honors, a 4.214 accumulative GPA and being ranked 10th in my senior class. I also wouldn't have found my love for giving back and serving communities.
Through my participation in this program I have learned to be a "man for others." I have cleaned up parks; written biographies about nursing home residents and Vietnam War veterans; planted trees and helped at the annual PBS Fun Fest downtown.
Giving back is an important aspect of my faith. I help people because I have gotten so much support from Boys Hope Girls Hope, my friends, family, and church. I want to thank the staff of Boys Hope Girls Hope for everything they have done for me and the other collegians this week to support us as we enter new chapter in our lives. I love all of you and thank you again.
