Boys Hope Girls Hope of St. Louis, Inc.

BHGHSTL works to break the cycle of poverty by providing access to education and enrichment opportunities to youth-in-need. Participating scholars apply as middle school students for acceptance into our comprehensive, long-term, holistic residential program that offers:
• College preparation, including college tours
• ACT Prep
• Lifelong, 1:1 mentor relationships
• 1:1 academic advising and ongoing subject-specific tutoring
• Personal growth opportunities including character development workshops and cultural enrichment opportunities
• Summer camp participation
• Development of volunteerism mindset through annual completion of 40 hours of service
• Post-secondary program support and scholarships based on eligibility
• Ultimately a path through post-secondary education and into successful careers

The BHGHSTL program capitalizes on the innate grit and resilience in scholars, nurturing emotional growth, fostering skill building, and encouraging the exploration of a scholar’s interest and potential career path.

All program participants are capable, motivated, and come from backgrounds of measured need. Acceptance is based on demonstrated academic ability, behavior and emotional capacity to succeed in college. Scholars graduating from high school in our care continue to receive emotional and social support services on their campuses as Collegians. Beyond college, many scholars tap into the national network of committed Boys Hope Girls Hope stakeholders to help begin their careers.

BHGHSTL makes a deep investment in a select number of high potential youth who, at a significant rate, overcome challenging family circumstances and other systemic environmental risk factors to become high performers committed to bettering themselves and their communities. Our model emphasizes quality over quantity and depth over breadth. Enrolled scholars live year-round on our campus and receive wrap-around services that enable the growth of the whole person, and upon matriculation into college, receive emotional support, assistance navigating higher education administration and financial aid offices, and, if eligible, financial support in the form of a scholarship. Our program provides:

• A safe, nurturing home environment under the direction of a trained, professional residential staff, including clothing, proper nutrition, and access to cultural enrichment opportunities
• Character development and personal growth opportunities including monthly community service experiences
• Life-coaching, relationships with quality mentors, the opportunity for spiritual development, and the clear communication of high expectations
• Placement in college preparatory schools, college preparatory programming, and comprehensive academic support
• Guidance through the processes of: career exploration, post-secondary program discernment, and applications for college admittance, financial aid, and scholarships
• Financial and emotional support throughout the transition to and completion of college

Our model incorporates an individualized, strengths-based, and whole-person development model in which the scholars become responsible for shaping their own growth in healthy collaboration with the BHGHSTL Program team, and each scholar’s guardians, mentors, educators, and therapists. This collaborative goal-setting and growth tracking process is called Service Planning, and these plans are developed in the context of a conference with the scholar, his/her guardian(s), the Residential Counselor identified as a “point person” for the scholar, the Program Manager, and other key individuals as appropriate, such as therapists or school personnel. Together this group identifies realistic, meaningful and SMART personal, emotional, social, physical, and intellectual goals and pairs them with concrete action steps, indicators of progress, targets, and time frames.

Within this framework, BHGHSTL delivers holistic, evidence-based programming to the youth in our care. We focus on ensuring that scholars are able to meet our three organizational goals:

Goal 1: Scholars demonstrate academic success in and graduate from college preparatory schools.
Goal 2: Scholars increase the academic and extracurricular skill sets predictive of success in school.
Goal 3: Scholars grow in emotional intelligence, character asset development, civic awareness, independent living skills, and experience and competency to successfully transition to mature, productive adulthood and become leaders.

Boys Hope Girls Hope has been in operation since 1977. Our experience has evolved with the needs of our youth, and we work to remain updated in best practices in the education and youth development space.

We benefit from membership in an International Network of Boys Hope Girls Hope affiliates who share the same goals. The Headquarters hosts conferences and offers guidance and regular assistance with programming and governance needs.

Our direct services staff each receives at least 80 hours of training within their first 90 days of hire, and each year thereafter they receive a minimum of 40 hours additional annual training. This training includes CPR, First Aid, Medicine administration, and BHGH STL policies and procedures, licensing protocol. Additionally, trauma-informed practices and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training are required, and staff remains on track with monthly direct service staff meetings. Annual cultural competency training is also offered to both staff and volunteers, and built into our budget is a stipend for each staff member to pursue professional development opportunities.

Our scholars worked hard to have a tremendous 2018 - 2019 academic year. They finished out with a home average 3.0 GPA and enjoyed various extracurricular activities. In May, all of our residential scholars matriculated to the next grade level. Four residential scholars and ten Hope Prep Academy Scholars graduated from high school and enrolled at colleges of their choice, earning a substantial amount of scholarships.

Our Collegians also excelled this past year: two scholars who had been on full ride scholarships graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. One is now studying for the LSAT, and the other has chosen to continue at Wash U toward her Masters in Social Work at the Brown School.

In addition to our scholar successes, Boys Hope Girls Hope of St. Louis has grown organizationally during 2019 - 2020. Partnering with our International Headquarters, we have implemented an internal program compliance and quality control process we call the Performance Management Tool, which is helping to elevate and enhance our programming. We have additionally transferred our documentation into a new data management system that will help streamline our reporting, and we have hired a full-time licensed therapeutic counselor to provide services to all of our scholars.

In September 2019, we welcomed former Program Director Cassandra Sissom, LPC as our new Executive Director, and she has taken her leadership role to the next level. She already has implemented action on our new strategic plan initiatives, including increasing collegian success and residential outcomes, diversifying revenue streams, and improving staff retention. Together, Cassandra and Development Director Jan Wacker raised over $900,000 at our signature Evening of Hope dinner gala in November 2019, partnering with local corporations including Emerson, World Wide Technology, and Edward Jones. We continue to be humbled by the community of support that rallies around our scholars.