From Deseret News archives:
Home for 'Lost Boys'
St. George shelter to help those outsted from FLDS communities
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The eight-bedroom home located just off Bluff Street doesn't have a formal name, but it will soon become a haven for some of the so-called "Lost Boys." They are teens who have either been kicked out or run away from Short Creek — the Fundamentalist LDS Church enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
"It'll work just right," says Ben, who asked that his last name not be used. He left the FLDS Church at 18.
Leaning against a door frame, he looked around, surveying the home's potential.
"This'll be good," he says.
Michelle Benward shows off the shelter with pride.
"This is our welcoming area," she says, walking briskly from one room into another.
"This will be a dining room."
Right now, the residence is empty. The only appliance is an old, beat-up stove.
"We're going to give kids a place to transition from one community into the next safely," she said.
Benward is the clinical director for New Frontiers for Families, a Garfield County-based nonprofit that helps provide social services for families in rural areas. Over the years, she has become more involved in championing the Lost Boys.
"I call them my kids,'" she says with a smile.
Coming together
Working with the Diversity Foundation, they have managed to put together this home. The shelter owes its existence to perseverance, determination and good fortune.
"It's kind of a strange mixture between government, nonprofits and people who just care," said Paul Murphy, the coordinator for the Utah Attorney General's Safety Net Committee, which provides services for people in and out of polygamy.
A wealthy man in the area purchased the residence and donated it to the nonprofits for the purpose of creating a sanctuary for the Lost Boys.
The home will mostly serve boys who otherwise have few services available to them.
Even the Utah attorney general's much-touted "Safety Net" is geared toward women leaving abusive or neglectful situations within polygamy.
"The girls still have other resources," Benward said. "They still have the Dove Center. They still have the Safety Net. The boys don't have that access."
After taking some of the Lost Boys to lobby Utah lawmakers, the nonprofits secured some government funding for "homeless youth." The rest hinges on volunteer labor and community generosity.
"We don't have enough money for food. We don't have money for clothes," Benward said. "We don't have the full amount that we need for utilities. We need furniture. We need a fridge."
Warren Jeffs
