Eagle Rock's Independent Living Program has served over 100 boys since its founding.

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In 2010 we began to see some kids come through our Boys Home after enduring great trauma, only to graduate high school with no direction and nowhere to go.

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In many instances, boys would become homeless and trapped in different cycles because they had not had the time needed and more intensive training to be prepared to enter the world. They lacked some basic life skills to be successful on their own.

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It was with this in mind our Independent Living Program was birthed. 

Under the leadership of Dustin Freeman, this program aims to come alongside those young men who have finished high school, but are still in need of more mentoring and life skills in many areas. We help them find jobs, provide a place for them to stay, teach them to steward finances, teach them about the job interview process and work ethic, and come alongside them in every area of being an adult.

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Our role goes far beyond simply getting our boys through their childhood and teenage years. We want them to become productive citizens, committed husbands, and great dads. We want them to escape lifestyle habits that contribute to poverty and abuse.

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In this program, boys who are nearing the time to age out of our traditional program, are moved into private apartments where they live in a semi-supervised setting. There, they get an opportunity to pay their own bills, buy their own food, purchase a car, budget their money and manage their lifestyle. If they fall flat on their face (figuratively), we are there to pick them up and exhort and encourage. In essence, we are allowing our boys to learn valuable life lessons in a setting where they can fail without drastically altering their lives. 

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Studies show that up to 29% of youth in foster care will become homeless within 18 months of emancipation from foster care. It is our greatest desire that none of our boys will become a part of that statistic.