Children and families in need can get a variety of help from Girls and Boys Town of Nevada.

"We do long-term foster care at our residential homes, and have emergency shelter," said Elizabeth Muto, development director. "And family preservation services and common-sense parenting, for families with parents in crisis."

At any given time, Muto said, there are about 18 children in the shelter and 24 in the organization's foster homes. In addition, through various parenting courses, Girls and Boys Town reaches about 500 children each year, she said. She noted the group has a five-year goal of serving more than 5,000 children.

Most of the children are in the range of 10 to 17 years old, she said, and the agency hopes to build a home that would serve children age 9 and younger.

Muto said the lives of the children served by Girls and Boys Town of Nevada have been impacted in various ways.

"A lot of the kids that come in, their lives have been affected by crystal methamphetamine," she said. "Some parents aren't as involved as they need to be. There are no clearly defined roles. Both parents are working and spend too little time with the children. Some parents weren't in successful families growing up, and they really don't have the knowledge."

Families are assisted in a variety of ways. The family-preservation service, she said, involves a counselor going in to work intensively with a family for six to eight weeks.

"They teach the family how to act as a cohesive, functional family unit," Muto said. "They work on the entire family. 'Nanny 911' and 'Supernanny' are both based on the Boys Town model." The program, Muto said, has an 86 percent success rate.

The common-sense parenting program, she said, is "more where the parents come to us and we teach them essential parenting skills."

Children who go to the residential homes and emergency shelter travel one of a variety of routes.

"Some of them come from parents who have privately admitted their children in Girls and Boys Town for 10 days," she said. The period, she said, provides "time for us to investigate and evaluate where the child's at and what's going on in the home, and meet their individual needs. A lot of time they're parents who just don't know what else to do."

Some of the children arrive via court suggestion, she said. "Some just have nowhere else to go.

"Some of them are runaways. Some are children who have been brought to us by the city or county. We're also a Safe Place," a refuge for children who feel they're in danger.

"Some are here because their homes have been deemed unsafe for a child," she said. "Some are just picked up. There are a lot of different ways that they come to us."

Girls and Boys Club of Nevada is supported by grants, county assistance and contracts, Muto said, as well as fundraising activities and the national Girls and Boys Town organization. A corps of volunteers assists with various events, and the local group is about to launch a volunteer council, which Muto said will serve as an extension of the board, supporting fundraising activities and public and community relations.

Anyone interested in volunteering or making a donation is asked to call 642-7070, ext. 106.