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    Steve Fournier, Executive Director of the Burke Center

The Burke Center seeking sponsors and auction items

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At present, the Burke Center houses twenty-one boys, but they hope that the profits from their upcoming 2020 Gala will help them raise capacity from twenty-one to thirty & build a dormitory, allowing the boys to have their own bedroom, as they are now at four to a room.

The Burke Center for Youth is currently seeking sponsors, auction items, and donors for their upcoming Apr. 4th Gala in 2020.

The Burke Center for Youth is an organization whose goal is to promote healing and inspire hope in children in crisis. Located on a donated ranch in Driftwood, it was opened as a residential treatment center in 1973 by Rosemary Burke and Charlie Campise. It started as an organization that strived to break the cycle of abuse in the foster care system, and although a lot of things have changed since then at The Burke Center, that has not. 

“These kids are coming from a traumatic life and they need very targeted therapy,” Steve Fournier, executive director of the organization, said. 

Before becoming executive director, Fournier was a volunteer at the Center for two years, and has been executive director for four years. Fournier’s role is to be responsible for the inner workings of the center and give his employees the proper tools to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the boys.

“We make sure they’re safe all day long from themselves or anyone else,” said Fournier. The Center houses boys from age eleven to seventeen who stay from five months to two years; these boys come from the foster care system and often do not feel secure in themselves due to the ever-changing and chaotic nature of the system, and the Burke Center seeks to be a keystone period in their lives.

“We want to make sure they have the skillset to thrive in a foster home,” said Fournier. Boys living at the Burke Center will learn how to plan meals, cook, do laundry, make their beds, and do the dishes, and will practice doing so on a regular basis. While they do this, they will also fill out job applications for companies in Dripping Springs, giving them a sense of responsibility that could put them back on their feet.

At present, the Burke Center houses twenty-one boys, but they hope that the profits from their upcoming 2020 Gala will help them raise capacity from twenty-one to thirty & build a dormitory, allowing the boys to have their own bedroom, as they are now at four to a room. Interested sponsors and donors should call (512) 858-4258.

“We’re so blessed and so thankful to have a community that supports our mission,” said Fournier. “Having that support is so vital to getting these boys the help they need.”

For more information on the Burke Center for Youth, visit burkecenterforyouth.org .

 

 

 

 

 

Dripping Springs Century-News

P.O. Box 732
Dripping Springs, Texas 78620

Phone: (512) 858-4163
Fax: (512) 847-9054