Chatting with the Head of Boys Hope Girls Hope

Waking up at seven am on a Saturday morning is not exactly my cup of tea, but I was overwhelmed by a curiosity to meet both Angela and the children. So, I dragged myself out of bed as the birds were chirping and drove groggily to the former BOYS HOPE and GIRLS HOPE houses. It was chilling to see the extent of Katrina's damage, even now, a year after the hurricane had ravaged this part of the town. Both houses had been flooded almost up the second storey, and all of the residents were living temporarily in other quarters. Angela had come off as a very professional person on the phone, and the website for the organization had almost implied an extremely strict adherence to rules and regulations. I was surprised by the casual attitude with which Angela approached everything. She had a definitive leadership quality to her, but she was able to take charge without being overtly domineering. Stripping the homes of the storm debris, I saw small magnets holding up tests emblazoned with numerous A's and recipes scrawled on the backs of note cards. Each small memento served to demonstrate the type of environment into which each student was welcomed. The homes were empty of a stereotypically sterile academic environment, and it seemed as if they had created a network of support for more than mere academic success.

Dawn: How does the program work?

Angela: BOYS HOPE GIRLS HOPE is a non-profit organization that seeks to place disadvantaged children with academic potential into an environment that is more conducive to academic success. We choose students for the program who have demonstrated great academic potential and place them into a home with others under the care of a trained counselor. They help with daily chores and we try to create a family like environment. They generally attend private schools, and we stress the importance of a well balanced education and strongly encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities. We are a non-denominational program, but students are expected to develop in a spiritual sense and worship within the tradition of their families. Ultimately though, the biggest emphasis is on a college preparatory program, and our ultimate goal is higher education for 100% of our graduates.

Dawn: That ties into my next question, that is, how long do most of the children stay in the program? And how many of them move into higher education?

Angela: You'd be surprised at how many of them choose to stay in the program all the way through high school graduation. Although, we accept students from all grades, the majority of our students are probably between about nine and fourteen. As for how many move onto college, we're proud to say as of now 100% of our graduates attend college.

Dawn: You said before that they come from disadvantaged backgrounds, what exactly does that mean?

Angela: First off, disadvantaged can mean a variety of different things, and it doesn't necessarily imply impoverished. While we do have some students who come from the stereotypical drug riddled household, the majority of them actually come from homes who simply can't provide the best environment for academic success. That may be anything from someone whose family is going through a difficult crisis to someone whose family can't provide the assistance a child needs.

Dawn: Do you have any specific examples?

Angela: We have a younger boy in our BOYS HOPE house whose entire family is deaf except for him. His mother applied for the program because she felt he wouldn't be able to learn how to communicate properly with people in a home where verbal communication is basically obsolete.

Dawn: So how involved are most of their families in their lives once they decide to join the program?

Angela: Again, that all depends on their families, but a large majority of our current students have very caring families who try to spend as much time with them as possible. We always encourage families to be involved in the lives of their children, and we never try to take the place of a student's family, simply help out in some aspects that their own family can't.

Dawn: So, who pays for everything then? Does the family have to provide for some of the money, or is it all covered by your funds?

Angela: We generally provide the students with what they need, from health care all the way to basic toiletries. That doesn't mean we hand out large allowances to each child, but we try to take as much of the financial burden as we can, so that we don't discourage those students from lower income families from entering the program. Also, the majority of our graduates receive a scholarship for college from the national BOYS HOPE GIRLS HOPE program.

Dawn: Where does the funding come from?

Angela: We're a privately funded organization, meaning everything we have comes from donations by the community. While we appreciate monetary donations from
people, we also accept anything ranging from toys and books to cars.

Dawn: How has Katrina impacted everything? Where and how did you maintain the program during the storm?

Angela: Our houses were actually pretty damaged by the flooding, so we've been living in some temporary housing for now since we've been back. It was a struggle for a while attempting to find adequate housing for our students, and a few of them ended up living with their families during the storm. A lot of the students ended up losing most of their possessions and they've really come through and shown a lot of maturity. For now, I'm living with the girls in an old convent until we can either repair the old house or buy a new one.

Dawn: Okay, last question, does the program have any sort of political affiliation, and do you all ever endorse a candidate or a party?

Angela: We generally try to steer clear of politics. While we gladly accept any sort of donations from anybody, we would never officially stand behind any one party or candidate. Honestly, we're generally too absorbed in taking care of our students to ever really play a political game.