The BoysGrow Program

While everybody works on the farm, this group primarily focuses on the success of our 10 acre vegetable production farm. They have an interest in agriculture and enjoy getting their hands in the dirt. They learn organic growing practices and assist with everything from planting the seeds to packaging our finished product. They develop a variety of skills but patience and work-ethic are ones they quickly learn.

These are young men who not only enjoy cooking but might be interested in turning this interests into a career. They use fresh produce from the farm and during the summer months along with their Culinary Instructor prepare meals for the other youth and staff, which is typically over 35 people. This team is learning skills they can directly translate into a career. They have a BG Culinary Handbook to assist them in learning new things and have not only met but worked with a variety of chefs in the community, Howard Hannah, Ted Habinger & Lidia Bastianich for example. These youth have the large task of developing the recipe that will eventually be their Class Product. They develop the necessary teamwork to work in a kitchen, learn how to give and receive direction, the confidence to make decisions in the kitchen and a fast paced work ethic that is necessary in this field.

These guys come in with some skills or interest in Carpentry. They are led by our Construction Crew Leader and are often seen around the farm repairing or building things. They have the opportunity to learn very functional skills that may translate into a career. These youth also assist in building harvest tables and coffee tables that we sell.

These youth assist with the social media and minor updates to the website. Everyone gets to be a part of the marketing team and workshops at some point. The main job for this team is to work with our marketing team directors and create the label and materials that will go on their class product, as well as brainstorming and applying different marketing techniques for the general program.

This can be a very scary but rewarding team for the youth. We coach them and guide them along on the process but these teenagers are expected to be the “voice” of the program and handle most public speaking events. We think this is an amazing skill to develop at such a young age and gaining the confidence to speak in public and formulate their thoughts will assist in them in a variety of ways.

This team is for young men that have a vocational interest in mechanics. Youth on this team learn basics of mechanics from performing an oil change on a car, to small motor repairs. This team is seen around the farm performing repairs on other farming or construction equipment for hands-on training in addition to the curriculum they go through. The curriculum is a robust organized program that focuses on different aspects of basics of mechanics each week the boys come onto the farm.