This Year's Project: A Towel: A Simple Gift, A Powerful Comfort
About Our Organization
Boys and Girls Home and Family Services, Inc, has been providing programing to meet the educational, emotional, and behavioral needs of our community’s most vulnerable children and families since 1894. With a laser focus on the importance of access to mental health services for those who have experienced acute trauma including abuse, neglect, family dysfunction or cognition impairment, Boys and Girls Home is committed to our mission, “improving the lives of children and families.” The nonprofit agency offers a continuum of care including PMIC (Psychiatric Medical Institute for Children) Residential Treatment for traumatized children ages 5-17; Outpatient Therapeutic Mental Health Services for all ages; an Alternative Education Program for children ages 5-17 and Emergency Food, Translation Services and Community Connections to basic needs for all ages.
Boys and Girls Home is committed to providing a path to mental wellness for all ages; providing guidance to those needing help with life’s everyday struggles, as well as healing the effects of emotional, psychiatric or behavioral issues resulting from neglect, abuse, mental health diagnoses or severe family dysfunction.
We Change Lives
Current Project: A Towel: A Simple Gift, A Powerful Comfort
Imagine arriving at a new place, scared, confused and carrying the weight of unimaginable trauma. This is the reality for many children, ages 5-17, who come to their "temporary new home", Boys and Girls Home and Family Services, Inc. Each child brings their own story of hardship, and when they arrive, they often feel lost and vulnerable.
One of the first things we do to help ease their transition is to make sure each child feels safe and important, we bring them in and show them their room. Waiting on their bed are a few essentials, included in that are clean towels. Something simple but essential: a warm shower and clean towels. This perhaps seems insignificant to many of us, but to a child who has faced neglect, abuse or instability, this gesture can mean the world. A shower isn't just a chance to wash away dirt; it is an opportunity to feel clean, safe, and comforted.
At Boys and Girls Home, we make sure each child can use two fresh towels and a washcloth for each of their twice daily showers-towels that provide the warmth and care they desperately need. But these towels, washed over and over in our industrial machines, take a beating. They each last us only 3 to 6 months because of the constant use and wear. Each towel costs between $10 and $15, and with up to 30 residents staying with us at any given time, it is a regular and essential expense.
Your support will help us continue offering this basic but crucial comfort. For as little as $10, you can help ensure that every child who walks through our doors can have a clean, comforting towel to use during their stay. These towels are more than just a necessity-they are a small but powerful part of helping each child feel safe and cared for as they begin to heal.
These children stay with us for an average of 7 months, working through trauma, fear and pain. Something as simple as a clean towel can make an immeasurable difference in their sense of security and well-being.
Will you help us provide this comfort and be a part of their healing journey?
Warm Hearts, Warm Hands: Coats for Kids
Project Details
With winter around the corner, the 5-17 year old children who live with us need boots, coats, gloves and scarves. Your Siouxland Big Give donations will not only help keep our children warm, but warm their hearts as well!
Together, We Change Lives!
Friday Fun
Project Details
Remember when your curfew was the street lights coming on! Remember when a Saturday morning movie was the highlight of your week! Remember the sound of the ice cream truck coming down the block!
For many children this is an everyday occurrence. For our children it is not. As the children (5-17) who live with us work through the challenges they have been dealt, sometimes everyday experiences mean more than you can know. Please help us to provide fun in the life of a child such as a trip to the movies, a school carnival, a bouncy house, or a sledding day.
Your donations allow us to provide these extras for our children and help our children know that they are special and that they are in your hearts!
Together, WE CHANGE LIVES!
Coats for Kids
Project Details
The money from the Siouxland Big Give will go to provide the children in our care with winter coats! With the season around the corner, we also need boots, gloves and scarves. Your donations will help keep our children warm.
Shoes and Winter Clothes
Project Details
The children who live with us are in always in need of new shoes. With winter around the corner, we also need boots, coats, gloves and scarves. Your donations will help keep our children warm.