News & Activities

Good Shepherd OPTAY Program Receives GOCCP and UWCM Grants

Both the Good Shepherd School and the Center’s Residential Program continue to focus programming on readying students to transition back into their communities.  In 2011, Good Shepherd Center was awarded grants by both the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) Program and the United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM) Impact Strategies Program to develop our Occupational Preparation and Transition Age Youth (OPTAY) Program.  This program gives our adolescent girls and boys the skills and confidence to provide a brighter future for themselves.

The GOCCP and UWCM funding focuses on developing life and vocational skills programming at Good Shepherd Center including Maryland Foster Youth Resource Center workshops and internships both in the community organizations as well as inside Good Shepherd Center. The funds have purchased needed hardware, software and other equipment for the OPTAY Program which teaches students important job skills they can use when they transition back to their communities. In addition, UWCM Impact Strategies funded a new irrigation and sprinkling system for the Horticulture Program, multiplying production and enabling students to have plant and vegetable sales for staff and neighbors. This helps students learn important retail skills, as well as earn needed funds to support their program. 

Two Ways You Can Help Good Shepherd Center- United Way Campaign and GIANT A+ School Rewards Program

Consider supporting Good Shepherd Center at your workplace through a United Way campaign and at home through the GIANT A+ School Rewards Program. Good Shepherd (sometimes listed as House of the Good Shepherd of the City of Baltimore) is listed as agency

#3444 for the United Way of Central Maryland, the Combined Charity Campaign, and the Maryland Charity Campaign.  We are listed as agency #75447 for the Combined Federal Campaign. 

To participate in GIANT’s A+ School Rewards Program, you can register your GIANT card at giantfood.com/aplus using Good Shepherd’s 5-digit ID code (01552) to help our school earn CASH just by shopping with your GIANT card beginning October 7, 2011, and continuing through March 29, 2012.  This year GIANT will be giving $2 million to help schools in our communities stay strong and we want to make sure Good Shepherd School participates in this wonderful program!

Celebrating the Holidays with our Horticulture Program

December 2011

The students in Good Shepherd Center’s Horticulture Program celebrated the Holidays with a plant sale to benefit the Horticulture Department.  Everyone admired the beautiful Poinsettias, ivy, herbs and other plants that the students offered for sale.  This semi-annual plant sale took place December 20 andgave the students needed funds for their Horticulture Program, and also gave them retail experience in dealing with customers.  We can’t wait for the next sale in Spring!  Check back on this website for news of this upcoming event! 

Summertime Activities

August 2011

Good Shepherd Center’s students don’t just attend school in summer.  They enjoy lots of summertime activities like cookouts, crabbing, swimming and even a block party in the Center Courtyard!  Summer is also a busy season for students in the Horticulture Program.  They are busy growing vegetables and defending their plants and produce from our resident ground hogs!  In June, students in the Good Shepherd Center Horticulture Program had a plant and vegetable sale that earned almost $400 for their program! 

Our CEO Welcomes Boys to our Program

January 2011

Dear Friends,

For 146 years Good Shepherd Center has taken great pride in providing state of the art treatment, combined with unwavering acceptance and care, to each girl brought into our program. Grounded in our belief that “one person is more precious than a world”, Good Shepherd Center is absolutely committed to maintaining a safe and effective treatment environment for each student until they have successfully completed the program. We pride ourselves in reaching out to families and agencies, collaborating to develop highly individualized treatment plans to accommodate the needs of nearly any youth referred to GSC. Additionally, upon admission, our students, their families, and agencies have our firm commitment to never eject that student from the program. Good Shepherd Center does not give up on children! These beliefs are reflected in our data related to rejections and ejections to and from the RTC. In 2010 not a single student was ejected from the program. For the year, only 3 girls were rejected, all due to their prevailing need for medically based treatment. Because of this commitment we have provided in state care to many girls who would have otherwise been sent far from their homes and local support systems.

We are happy to announce Good Shepherd Center is now in a position to expand this provision of care to include boys. We have traveled throughout the state, taking the time to listen to the needs of families and state agencies, and time and again we hear there is a need for treatment provided to boys who have been diagnosed with developmental disabilities. We have been treating this population of girls with great success for several years, and we are pleased to be offering the same services for boys. On January 10 we opened one unit dedicated to providing residential treatment to this population of boys, aged 13 to 18.  In this first week we will be admitting four youth who had been scheduled to be sent to out of state placements, if not for the opening of GSC’s boys program. Each of these boys, along with all other youth admitted, will receive our same commitment to providing individualized, comprehensive treatment until they have met their goals for success.

On behalf of the Sisters and staff at Good Shepherd Center, I thank you for your interest and support of this exciting new addition to our program.

Sincerely,

Derrick A. Boone, Psy.D.
President and CEO

Setting the Stage for a New Beginning!

Good Shepherd Center begins with a seed of hope that a brighter future can grow out of a troubled past.  The Center’s treatment program for adolescent girls was founded in Baltimore City over 146 years ago by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.  It is one of the oldest continually operating social services agencies in Maryland.  One benefit of working at Good Shepherd Center is the chance to really touch and change the lives of the students we serve.  The grandmother of an alumna wrote the below poem in thanks to Good Shepherd Center staff.

All About Good Shepherd

How do you thank people,
who save lives that have gone astray?
How do you thank people,
who give themselves each day?
They open up their hearts, and give all that they can.
So, that our young people
have good reason to live again.

When I get on my knees at night,
be sure I pray for you,
and ask the Lord to give you strength,
to continue what you do.
We love you dear Good Shepherd,
we are so grateful to you,
in our hearts and in our minds,
there’s always a place for you!

Bless all of you!

- From A Grateful Grandma
Given to the Staff at the time of a student’s successful discharge from Good Shepherd Center in October 2010

In September 2010 Good Shepherd Center celebrated its 40th anniversary in its present location in Baltimore County. To celebrate, the gymnasium at Good Shepherd Center was closed for major renovations for more than two months.  These included sanding the bleachers to get rid of splinters, painting murals on the walls, and removing forty years of finishing coats on the floor.  Curtains over the skylights were also removed, and the result is a much lighter, brighter gym which feels bigger and simply cries out to be played in.  A new electronic scoreboard and integrated sound system also enhance the space. July 21, 2010 was the long-awaited day of the ribbon-cutting. Dr. Derrick Boone, CEO and President, cut the ceremonial ribbon at 2 p.m. with assistance from student T.B. of the GSC Student Activities Committee.  Staff and students took turns throughout the afternoon studying the murals and enjoying the new look.  One of the walls of the gym depicts the skyline of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, while others are painted with grandstands of cheering fans.  Painted banners on the walls include the names of the eight dormitory Units at the Center as well as the six pillars of character used in the national Character Counts program. 

Among the many figures painted in the stands, the muralists included little surprises such as depictions of Harry Potter, “Waldo,” President Clinton’s cat, and President Bush’s dog.  Towards the end of the project, someone commented to the artists that the mural contained “everything but the kitchen sink,” to which they responded by climbing up to a remote corner and adding one.  We even have our new sheep Mascot, Lilly Rose, painted on the gym floor!

At Good Shepherd Center we are setting the stage for another 40 years of New Beginnings in our Baltimore County, Maryland home!