Opportunity Farm Helps At-Risk Boys - and Soon Girls - Become Self-Reliant, Responsible Adults

Unique family-style, early-intervention program is 2002 beneficiary of the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10k Road Race

After nearly a century of providing safe homes to at-risk boys and helping them mature into responsible and productive men, Opportunity Farm has turned its attention to another group more and more in need of similar support - at-risk girls.

Later this year, Opportunity Farm, a long-term, family-style residential facility in rural New Gloucester, will for the first time begin offering its one-of-a-kind early-intervention and prevention program to at-risk girls all over Maine.

And not a moment too soon.

Several recent studies and media reports confirm an alarming trend. More and more girls, both in Maine and nationally, are getting arrested, and girls are acting out in increasingly disturbing ways. In Maine, for example, the arrest rate for girls has risen 39 percent from 1990 to 2000, compared to a 3.5 percent increase for boys during that same period.

"This trend suggests that there are corresponding numbers of young girls at risk of traveling the path to anti-social behavior and to eventual incarceration," said Ronald J. Scott, president of Opportunity Farm. "We need to reach out to these girls before they wind up in the juvenile corrections system, because by then, it's often already too late."

Opportunity Farm offers the only social service solution in Maine that includes early intervention plus a long-term commitment and full funding for each at-risk child.

Opportunity Farm's decision to build a campus for girls - groundbreaking will occur this spring - coincides with its selection as the beneficiary of the 2002 Peoples Beach to Beacon 10k Road Race to be held on Saturday, Aug. 3. The world-class event, sponsored by Peoples Heritage Bank, will feature 5,000 runners and more than 6,000 spectators who line the scenic course along Maine's rocky coast in Cape Elizabeth.

"We chose Opportunity Farm because it provides such a unique and valuable service to so many at-risk boys, and now girls, in Maine," said Michael W. McNamara, president and CEO of Peoples Heritage Bank, a Maine-based bank with more than 60 branches throughout the state.

Each year, the bank, as part of its nationally recognized Peoples Promise: Shining the Light for Maine Youth program, chooses one youth organization to receive $30,000 from race proceeds. Additionally, Opportunity Farm will benefit from fundraising opportunities and publicity valued at more than $40,000. Last year, the Kids First Center was the race beneficiary.

"The Peoples Promise program is our way of supporting the youth of Maine. And we're very excited about Opportunity Farm," said McNamara. "The farm has done an admirable job over the years helping hundreds of troubled boys learn responsibility and become contributing adults. And it's so exciting to know that that same program will be offered to girls. We are honored to be associated with this organization."

Opportunity Farm opened in 1910, offering boys a safe home, a good education and hands-on farming skills. Its core mission has remained the same. While its 300 acres still includes a farm, Opportunity Farm has adapted to modern times. The 21 boys who live at the Farm now attend local public schools, participate in extracurricular activities and prepare for many different vocations in life.

Youths, usually between the ages of 10 and 13, enroll at the Farm voluntarily through referrals from school counselors, social service workers and other professionals. The reasons a youth comes to the Farm are varied, Scott said.

"Most often our kids are coming from homes where a combination of factors upsets the delicate balance that exists in a functioning family," he explained. "Whether it's marital strife, addiction to alcohol or drugs, economic hardship or the common difficulties when a young person moves from childhood to adolescenceÉMost of these kids are living with adults who are simply overwhelmed by the responsibilities of parenting."

Daily life at the Farm follows the Family Teaching Program, modeled after the well-known course at Boys Town. It is a learning environment where skills that are needed for success in the world are taught and strengthened. And the evidence suggests that it works. Every boy who has graduated in the past decade has gone on to further education or to military service, Scott said.

"We're proud of that record, we're proud of what's been accomplished," said Scott. "That's why there is so much excitement about offering those same services to girls."

The girls' campus will be constructed on a separate property about a half mile from the boys' campus. The distance is intended to avoid distractions yet permit sharing of resources and staff. When complete, Opportunity Farm will serve 21 girls housed in three attractive, 4,000-square-foot homes. Each facility will be staffed around the clock, just like the boys campus.

The Opportunity Farm program is unique in Maine in that it is the only out-of-home, social service program that makes a long-term commitment - both emotional and financial - to youths before their problems reach a crisis proportion. Early intervention is key to helping children steer clear of a dangerous path, Scott said.

And it costs far less - about $44,000 a year - to care for a child at Opportunity Farm than it does to house them in the Maine Youth Center (at least $62,000 per year) or in a residential care facility ($54,000 a year).

Once the girls' campus is fully operational, the per-child cost is expected to drop to $32,000 a year due to shared resources and other factors, Scott said.

The Board of Trustees at Opportunity Farm has approved a long-term capital plan to build and endow the girls' campus. Ultimately, the girls' campus will include three homes and serve a total of 18-21 girls. For more information about the expansion project, call (207) 926-4532 or write: Opportunity Farm, P.O. Box 65, New Gloucester, Maine 04260.

"There are many challenges ahead for us to get this done," Scott said. "But we have accepted those challenges because we believe strongly in the program that we offer and the good that it has done, and will continue to do, for at-risk boys and girls in Maine."

He continued, "When I see the changes in these boys, how they become self-reliant, responsible and contributing adults, and now girls too, I'm as convinced as ever that it's worth the effort."

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