Marygrove provides a safe home, compassionate care, and high-quality mental health services to children and youth who have experienced significant trauma, to restore their childhood, and equip them for their future.

Marygrove’s Independent Living Program (ILP) program ensures that youth, ages 16-21, who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability, transition into a safe, positive environment and, ultimately, achieve healthy independence. The program includes two different models for living, each offering a different level of supervision to meet the needs of the youth served. 

The Tilles Foundation awarded a three-year $300,000 gift in 2021 ($100,000 each year) to support Marygrove’s Bridging the Gap for Healthy Futures (BGHF) program which expanded ILP services to those who would otherwise be ineligible to receive services due to age restrictions. In 2022, Marygrove served nearly twice as many youth through the BGHF program as they had originally proposed, helping 11 clients who were at risk of aging out of the program instead of 6. 

Of the 11 clients served by the BGHF program: 7 maintained full-time jobs; 4 maintained part-time jobs; 2 were full-time college students; 1 was a part-time college student participating in a CNA program; 3 residents who were discharged had full-time jobs; 8 demonstrated money management skills; 5 transitioned to a stable or improved living situation upon discharge, and 6 residents remain in the program. All BGHF clients gained knowledge about community resources and improved their well-being as evidenced by healthy life choices, life skills, education, health care, and relationships.

Thanks to the support of the Tilles Foundation, Marygrove clients have thrived in learning essential life skills, including personal finance/budgeting, taking responsibility in various areas of their lives, and building parenting skills to stop cycles of abuse.

Tilles grant funds advance a key goal in Marygrove’s strategic plan by expanding the ILP to address the needs of a vulnerable population of older youth to help them become healthy, independent, and productive members of society. Marygrove is committed to sustaining the BGHF program through diverse funding streams, including federal, state, and local government grants, private foundations, corporate gifts, and individual philanthropic support.

Thanks to the Tilles Foundation’s gift, Allison, an Independent Living Program resident, has already achieved great heights! After a childhood impacted by mental and sexual abuse, at the tender age of 9, Allison began to lose hope and contemplated ending her life. But, after coming to Marygrove, Allison finally found a safe home and was surrounded with love and compassion that enabled her to find herself and push ahead to achieve a life much different than her past. 

Allison is now working while attending Ranken Technical College with a goal to graduate with a degree in Electrical Systems and become a line worker for a utility company. As she proudly shared with the crowd at Marygrove’s recent Bloom Gala, “some line workers do their jobs in a helicopter!” In Allison’s words, "Marygrove is here for the kids that never gave up, when their parents gave up on them."

To learn more about Marygrove, visit www.marygrovechildren.org.