New Leader Aims to Move Famed Charity Forward

The Rev. Steven E. Boes knew he wasn’t taking over just any national organization when he was appointed the new executive director of Girls and Boys Town. He was assuming the leadership of an institution that is as much an icon as any in the nonprofit world.

Girls and Boys Town is big enough to have its own zip code in its home state of Nebraska. Its boarding school is famous enough to have been immortalized by Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in the 1938 film Boys’ Town — a movie that will be released on DVD in November. It is strong enough to generate $78-million in donations last year and to have served more than 43,000 children at 19 sites in 15 states in 2004.

In turn, Girls and Boys Town (the name the charity adopted in 2000) is the kind of organization that requires a leader with enough vision to keep it moving forward and enough of an appreciation for its past to stay true to the mission set forth by its famous founder, the late Rev. Edward Flanagan, in 1917.

Given its pedigree, it was no surprise that the Girls and Boys Town board of directors spent nearly four years searching for a successor to the Rev. Val J. Peter, who retired in June after 20 years in the post, and planning for the transition from one leader to the next. That process led the board to canvass the country, considering candidates both inside and outside of the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, where it has found all of its previous directors.

In the end, the board decided that the organization’s best choice was Father Boes, a 46-year-old parish priest from the Archdiocese of Omaha who has a long history of working with troubled children. He is paid $28,000 annually, the standard pay for a parish priest in the diocese.

“The board found the best candidate while maintaining the historic relationship with the Archdiocese of Omaha,” Father Peter says. “Because of his commitment to children, Father Boes was one of my candidates back in 2001.”

Overseeing the treatment and education of abused, abandoned, and neglected children has, in many ways, been Father Boes’s calling since he was a youngster growing up in Iowa. He recalls sitting on his grandfather’s lap when he was a child, and listening to his grandfather tell him his fortune during a family ritual known as “whisker rubs.” His grandfather would tell Father Boes’s younger brothers that they would become doctors — and three of them followed that course.

He predicted that the young Steven would become a priest, which he did 20 years ago.

Ever since, Father Boes has focused much of his work on children, teaching in Catholic grade schools and high schools and working with youth groups.

Before he was hired by Girls and Boys Town, Father Boes was director of the St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Neb., a Catholic school for Native American children who come from poor families or face other challenges.

“It is really satisfying to see the change that is possible in young people,” he says. “I’ve always kind of liked the kids that got in trouble.”

But while Father Boes has spent much of his career working with children, he admits the jump from the tiny St. Augustine Indian Mission to Girls and Boys Town is daunting. St. Augustine, with fewer than 100 students, is known for its intimate size. Girls and Boys Town, meanwhile, has a high profile and a national agenda.

“I had thought that it was one of the more difficult jobs in the diocese because of the scope of the institution and the type of children who are served,” Father Boes says. “This is a difficult job. But I’ve always sought tough jobs.”

Even though the size and scope of Girls and Boys Town carries with it tremendous pressure, Father Boes says the organization’s history also gives him some unusual advantages as he attempts to expand its reach. First, Father Flanagan’s name still means a lot to older, loyal donors, who remember his warm-hearted depiction in the movie Boys’ Town.

In addition, the organization has been able to promote itself through its books on child rearing and education and through its establishment as a landmark site by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Father Boes says his primary goal is to build upon those strengths to help Girls and Boys Town expand its reach nationally. To get there, he says, the organization needs to continue to tell its story — and prove to prospective donors that its work is paying off.

“Once you meet our kids and they shake your hand and meet you in the eye, they show those social skills. You can tell it by the look in their eyes. You’ll be convinced the dream of Father Flanagan is still alive,” he says. “That’s what he imagined. He imagined child care in every state in the union. We’re getting there very slowly.”

In an interview, Father Boes talked about his new job:

What’s the most significant difference between this job and your past work?

There’s a difference in scope. The work I did at Winnebago was good work that helped children get better. We had some success there. We raised $1.5-million to double the number of classrooms in the school, raised teacher salaries, expanded our donor base beyond direct mail. We did a lot more corporate gifts with Mutual of Omaha.

Here, it’s more about doing those kinds of things well on a larger stage for more kids.

What is the organization’s biggest challenge?

Our challenge is economic and political. Kids don’t seem to be a priority for most states, and even our nation in terms of its level of funding. Small organizations are being forced out of business by the stingy level of funding.

We’re also getting forced more and more by states to have children stay here shorter times. That’s a challenge.

The way we meet that challenge is to have a family setting. That family setting allows a lot of things to be taught, especially social skills. The children learn independent-living skills. There are kids that have to learn how to cook and clean. We teach them all of those things in a family setting. The school is designed to get them up to speed.

What are some of your biggest goals?

Nationwide, one of the things we’re working on is expanding our outreach to Girls and Boys Town organizations nationwide. We’re helping them to connect with local resources and do their own research locally.

It’s not about just fund raising, it’s about awareness of our services and goals and buying into that.

Does Father Flanagan’s name still resonate with today’s generation?

The upcoming re-release of the Boys’ Town DVD is a moment to reconnect with Father Flanagan’s dream. The movie created a relationship with people. It touched their hearts. We continue to cultivate the relationships with the things we do.

His spirit is what energizes people who work here, even all these years later. We’re not giving up Father Flanagan. We can’t. We couldn’t if we tried.

ABOUT THE REV. STEVEN E. BOES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GIRLS AND BOYS TOWN

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from St. John Vianney Seminary College at the University of St. Thomas in 1981, a master’s degree in theology and a master’s of divinity from St. Paul Seminary College at the University of St. Thomas in 1985, and a master’s degree in counseling from Creighton University in 1994.

Previous employment: Father Boes has been an ordained priest for two decades, most recently working as director of the St. Augustine Indian Mission and associate pastor of four churches in Nebraska.

What he’s reading: An avid reader, Father Boes recently completed a biography of the founder of the organization he now heads, called Boys Town: Father Flanagan’s Dream, by the Rev. Clifford Stephens. The author, says Father Boes, ” was a Boys Town graduate who taught me in high school.”