Implementing the Community-Based Teaching-Family Model at Boys Town

Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, or “Boys Town,” as it is popularly known, was founded in 1917 by Father Edward J. Flanagan. Father Flanagan started the program to provide shelter and care for young boys who were orphans or in trouble. Eventually, they moved to what was then known as Overlook Farm, several miles west of Omaha, where there was space enough to care for dozens of boys. Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home had become Boys Town, an incorporated village with its own schools, homes for boys, police and fire departments, and post office.