New Abilene Transition Center Helping Local Youth

Some youth in the Abilene community now have a new place to get financial assistance for practically everything.
 It's called the Abilene Transition Center or BCFS. It has only been open for a couple of months in Abilene. The program focuses on helping young adults become self-sufficient.

Brittany Martinez is 22-years-old and a mother of two. She didn't graduate from high school and was having great difficulty finding a real job to support her family, "I tried to apply for my GED at the Workforce Center but I was too old to qualify for any of their youth programs."

She found out about BCFS and immediately got in contact with them, "They got it done real quick. They drove me over to adult education. They paid for my GED and right away I started testing and I got my GED in the mail three weeks later."

Johnny Nguyen, the Program Director at the Abilene Transition Center says they have been able to help fifty people already in just the couple of months they open in Abilene, "Anything from school, to jobs, to trying to overcome the homeless problem that we have here in Abilene with our youth being homeless, that's a huge part of what we're here for."

BCFS is partnering with several local agencies to help youth get off their feet. They're partnering with Our House to create a transitional shelter on Vine Street for eight people at a time, "We'll begin  construction in September. It's being built by the Texas Baptist Men building group. We're hoping to be in that facility by the years end," adds Nguyen.

Brittany Martinez says one of the greatest things about BCFS is that she's not given the run around and help is offered almost immediately, "Within those four months, I got my GED, I'm already going to college. They helped me out with everything. It all went by so quick through this transition center. They were on it."

Right now the Abilene Transition Center is funded through local donations and private foundations, but the director is working on a variety of state and federal grants to bring more programs to our area.