Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Boley Centers marks 35th year
By JON WILSON
Published March 16, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - Boley Centers, considered the largest residential program for people with psychiatric disabilities in the Southeast, celebrates its 35th anniversary this week.
A Yacht Club luncheon Friday will honor Mary Koenig, one of Boley's founders, and the Margaret Ewell Dickins Foundation, which contributes to numerous charitable causes.
Boley's beginnings date to the 1960s, when its programs began to be developed from a halfway house.
Established as an entity in 1970, the St. Petersburg center has more than 30 housing and service locations in Pinellas County. It serves more than 2,000 people with emotional, psychiatric and behavioral problems annually.
The goal is to guide people toward self-sufficiency.
In 2001, the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities named Boley one of the "best practices" employment programs for people with mental illnesses. Boley's was the only Florida program honored among 24 nationwide.
The same year, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a Florida advocacy organization, cited Boley for creating innovative housing programs for the people it serves. One of the programs helps people become homeowners.
The center also provides vocational counseling and helps people find jobs.
[Last modified March 16, 2005, 01:32:17]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
