Bridge Over Troubled Waters (BOTW) provides effective and innovative services to runaway, homeless and high-risk youth ages 14-24, helps youth avoid a lifetime of dependency on social services, guides youth towards self-sufficiency, and enables youth to transform their lives and build fulfilling, meaningful futures. Bridge’s innovative services follow a continuum-of-care model, where team members welcome youth in and offer support “where they are at.” As youth build their trust in the organization and their confidence in themselves, they move along a path to self-sufficiency and take advantage of various programs designed to help them strengthen their mental health and wellness, complete their education, find themselves careers, and work towards living independently. These services, the BOTW team, and the BOTW mission are all focused on taking youth the whole way.

In 1970, BOTW was formed, under the pioneering leadership of Sister Barbara Whelan, Sister Marie Keough, and Sister Barbara Scanlon. Collaborating with a group of physicians from Massachusetts General Hospital, Bridge organized a volunteer-run mobile medical van to bring emergency and preventive health care to the streets. They were at the forefront of a national movement to develop innovative programs and practices to reach the most vulnerable, high-risk youth and provide the age-appropriate continuum of care that could enable them to transform their lives and grow into fulfilled, self-sufficient adulthood. Bridge Over Troubled Waters became–and after more than 50 years remains –a national model and program incubator for youth development services that are effective in helping the most troubled and vulnerable homeless youth to turn their lives around.