Board of Directors Approves Project to Build Transitional Apartments
Released on: July 15, 2001

Boys Republic’s Board of Directors recently approved plans for an ambitious project: a transitional apartments complex. An extension of the agency’s Independent Living Program, the Transitional Apartments are intended as a temporary resource for graduating students who have no viable means of family support.

Architect's Rendering of Student Apartment

In recent years, preparing students for the transition home has become an important part of Boys Republic’s programs. The Aftercare Program and Family Reunification Endowment have each played a vital role in helping students return to their families.

Older students in placement – particularly those without families – present a special challenge. They often lack the knowledge or self-assurance to perform such survival tasks as leasing an apartment, managing a budget or securing employment. Because of this, they are particularly at risk of failure, once they return to the community.

Intensive Life Skills Training
The answer to this problem was to develop an intensive, hands-on program – an Independent Living Program (ILP) – that teaches youth approaching adulthood the skills they need to function on their own.

Under very close supervision, students in the demanding ILP hold a job, pay rent and utilities, manage finances and prepare meals, while finishing high school. The ILP experience simulates the same conditions students would encounter on their own, but does so within the safety of an instructive environment. Students learn importantlessons from their mistakes, as well as their successes.

In order to complete the ILP experience, each student must develop a realistic plan for returning home -- either to life on their own or with a member of their extended family. Called the transitional living plan, it must encompass all of a student’s anticipated needs, including a stable living arrangement, a bank account with reserves, a structured budget, a job to provide income, adequate transportation, education, community linkages and a backup plan – all of the things that we would expect of a responsible adult.

Each transitional plan is different, depending in large measure upon the degree to which the student’s family can be counted upon to provide support. Students with no family, at all, face the formidable task of creating a stable adult life from scratch. They graduate with the same life skills as other ILP participants, but lack the resources to begin life on their own.

An Extended Program
The Transitional Apartments program provides students who have no family support with a temporary, semi-supervised housing setting. As a 6-12 month program, it allows graduating students the opportunity to accumulate the financial reserves, acquire the job experience and complete the vocational training necessary to establish themselves in a stable living situation.

To a greater degree than the Independent Living Program, the Transitional Apartments will simulate the complex demands of living on one’s own. Students will have ample opportunity to practice money management: they must pay a security deposit, rent, utilities, phone, food, and transportation.

The Transitional Apartments Complex
A cluster of five craftsman-style buildings – three student residences, a supervising staff residence and a community building – makes up the Transitional Apartments.

The apartments will lie in close proximity to the site of Boys Republic founder Margaret B. Fowler’s residence. Years later, the site gained further historical significance when Mrs. Fowler’s residence became the original home of Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation, the nationally recognized hospital for physical rehabilitation.

Boys Republic has hired architect Frazier Golding to design the five buildings. Mr. Golding also designed the agency’s Alumni Center and the provided the plans for a recently renovated administrative building.

Renderings for the Transitional Apartments reflect the program’s intent: to provide a realistic housing experience for students preparing to accept adult responsibility.

Arranged around a circular drive, the three student residences -- duplex-style apartments -- are designed with practical simplicity in mind. Modestly appointed, they’re the same size and sophistication-level that would be affordable to young adults seeking to establish themselves in the community. Each side of a duplex will offer its young inhabitants two small bedrooms and private study areas, a kitchenette and dining area, a living room, a bathroom and a carport.

A separate staff residence encourages the students’ growing independence, while allowing the availability of a mature adult. Graduating students continue to need adult guidance. But they equally benefit from the latitude of exercising their own judgment and learning from their successes and mistakes.

Finally, a community building will stand at the development’s center. Even though graduating students will spend the bulk of their time at jobs, vocational training and other appointments in the local community, there will also be a need for a central services area, both for the Transitional Apartments residents as well as other Independent Living Program students. The Community Building will provide a large meeting area, a laundry, storage area, a recreational room, a kitchen and administrative offices.