Powerful New Documentary Generates Awareness About Mental Health and the Importance of Preventative Care

Boys Town is excited to announce that our Family Home program will be featured in a new documentary called Blue Baby.

The movie was privately funded and produced by Matters Media, a non-profit organization whose mission is to generate awareness about mental health and other pressing societal issues by creating documentaries that explore and examine effective solutions. The documentary follows the stories of eight teen boys and their experiences over the course of a school year in a Boys Town family home. In the film, viewers see the ups and downs of these young men as they learn the importance of social skills, the value of family, and their own worth as they grow towards adulthood.

Since this documentary was filmed, Boys Town has continued to develop support for youth in our Family Home program, while also increasing investment in assistance, guidance and resources to support the young men and women in the program after high school graduation.

• Our Successful Futures program aims to extend the support and guidance these youth receive during those critical years after graduation to keep them on the right track and serve as a safety net should they need it.
• Depending on the individual needs of the youth, Boys Town offers housing assistance, job training and development, education support and more.
• While in high school, greater education is now in place that focuses on life skills and independent living skills for graduates to help them succeed no matter the challenges they may face upon leaving.

Boys Town has spent the last several decades developing and implementing family and school-based interventions that prevent children from being placed out of their homes so to enhance the system of care. Nonetheless, the need for residential programs for some children persists. And as can be seen in the film, when youth are not given access to preventative services their journeys can be difficult.

A heart-wrenching story about the making of Blue Baby was recently featured on CatholicLink.com: A Woman Named Jane: A Filmmaker's Journey In Making Blue Baby

We hope you will get a chance to see the film, hear the stories and meet the families that Boys Town is healing every day. We also hope this film will help you understand why the need is still so great and why investments in preventative programs, as well as out of home care for youth in their time of greatest need, are the keys to propelling a different life trajectory for children in need across America. 

Blue Baby is available to purchase and stream on Apple TV, Prime Video and Google Play.