Who We Are

Where Caring Counts

The caring staff at Missouri Girls Town provides a loving, family atmosphere for all the girls living in our community – something many of our clients never experience before coming to Missouri Girls Town. We offer these young ladies the tools to help them grow to adulthood, and teach them life skills that help prepare them to care for themselves and their own families one day.

Our Clients

From the very beginning, Missouri Girls Town has concentrated on providing care and treatment for abused and neglected girls. By staying focused only on girls, we have built a program of parenting and counseling that fits the needs of teenage girls traumatized by abuse and neglect.

When new clients arrive at Missouri Girls Town, they have typically been through nine failed placements which may have included foster care or other residential centers, hospitalization, relatives, and failed adoptions. These adolescent girls are between the ages of eight and twenty-one and are in need of a therapeutic, structured living environment that addresses emotional and behavioral disorders. Our clients are referred through the Missouri Division of Family Services, the Department of Mental Health, or the juvenile courts. Every effort is made to place young women at Missouri Girls Town who will have an excellent chance to succeed in our caring, structured environment.

Our Team

Missouri Girls Town Foundation, Inc. is a public 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1959. Jenny Preiss assumed the role of Executive Director in 2017. Melissa Blumer, LCSW, MSW, is our Program Director, and Associate Executive Director. Missouri Girls Town is a member of the Missouri Coalition of Children’s Agencies. Missouri Girls Town is accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA).

Our Leadership Team is composed of experienced professionals, both clinical and administrative, who also have not only book knowledge, but life-knowledge in the areas of abuse and neglect. Our Leadership Team is able to appropriately relate to youth clients on an individual level, share their experience in similar situations, which allow for a relationship to be formed, blossom, and for trust to develop. We believe that Safety and Trust are vital building blocks for youth to move forward. We have vastly transformed our program to meet our youth clients where they are. The number of master’s degrees on the leadership shows professional acumen of our team, however we believe that it is the person behind the degree that really allows us to make meaningful connection with youth to correct their behavioral problems.

These people skills have enabled us to form strategic relationships with community partners, including the The Central and North East Missouri Food Bank, Medicaid, Sherriff’s Departments as well as vendors, health care providers, and local foundations. Missouri Girls Town has been serving youth with nowhere else to go for over 60 years. Our organization has pivoted many times over our history, to better meet the needs of Missouri’s Youth. Now, we are at a pivotal moment where an expansion of our services is needed. Emergency admissions have become more common for our residential program and behaviors of clients are changing as well. It takes a village to raise children. Join our village to help more children.