The Father Maloney’s Boys’ Haven equine program, itself just a yearling, is garnering national attention following publication of a story about it in the April issue of Catholic Digest magazine.

The program was launched last April to train young people for entry-level positions in the state’s Thoroughbred and standard bred horse industry. It was designed to help at-risk young men and women, usually ages 17 to 23, who are becoming too old for traditional foster-care programs.

Many of the young people served by Boys’ Haven, at 2301 Goldsmith Lane, have been victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Others have been in and out of trouble with parents, with the law, with the school system or with authority of any kind. Throughout the years, Boys’ Haven has given troubled young people a last chance at a consistent, stable and productive life.

The equine program, headed by retired police officer and Boys’ Haven staff member Jay Wilkinson, is housed in a newly-built, 10-stall barn on the Goldsmith Lane campus. The barn’s second floor features a classroom recently completed and furnished with the help of a $15,000 grant from the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities in Wilmington, Del.

Jim Grote, director of development for Boys’ Haven, said the equine program currently has 10 horses — five stabled in the on-campus barn and five others in training at the Trackside at Churchill Downs facility on Poplar Level Road.

The Catholic Digest article, part of its “Love Your Neighbor” series, was written by the magazine’s managing editor, Julie Rattey. The magazine is based in New London, Conn., Rattey said, and grew interested in writing about the equine program after being contacted by the Boys’ Haven staff.

“We had planned to do a feature on Boys’ Haven,” Rattey explained, “and then we found out about their equine program and what a wonderful opportunity it’s providing for young people. Our aim is to touch the hearts and minds of readers with stories that illustrate the good, and the good work, that people are doing for others.”

Catholic Digest decided to tell the story of the equine program through the personal history of one of its earliest participants, a Boys’ Haven resident identified in the story as Peter.

“His story was very dramatic,” Rattey noted. “It provided a great example of someone who, with the help of Boys’ Haven and the equine program, has overcome lots of obstacles to make a better life for himself.”

Catholic Digest has a circulation of nearly 300,000, and Rattey said the magazine boasts of a readership of 2.2 million because of what it calls its high “pass-along” rate. “More than one person reads each issue of our magazine,” she said, “and since April is a special issue dealing with Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the U.S., we’re printing additional copies to be distributed in New York and Washington,” where the pope will visit next month.

It all amounts to a great deal of attention for Boys’ Haven and its equine program — attention that has already produced some results, Grote said.

“We’ve received about a half-dozen contributions from people around the country,” he said. “And we received a call today (March 24) from a judge in West Virginia who wants to donate a horse.”

Grote noted that the young man featured in the Catholic Digest article now has a job working as a groom “making $29,000 a year plus bonuses.”

“He’s renting a town house now, and it’s the first time in his life he’s been able to have his own place,” he added.

That’s due in part to the help he received from Boys’ Haven and the equine program, Catholic Digest notes.

In the magazine’s article, Rattey writes that Peter, who is now 23, first came into contact with Boys’ Haven a decade ago when his social worker told him “it’s Boys Haven or boot camp.”

“In Peter’s mind,” Rattey wrote, “Boys’ Haven had been, and was still, the only good thing that had ever happened to him. The people there had helped him work through his anger and substance abuse, gotten him back into school. He had learned that there was, in fact, a God, and, moreover, that God was capable of making something good out of everything bad he had suffered.”

Grote said Boys’ Haven has two dozen young people in the program now, and some of them have been referred to it by state social workers.

“Because of the state’s interest, the program has already grown to be bigger, in terms of the number of kids involved, than we thought it would be at this time,” Grote said.

Jackie Everett with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services said the state has placed four young men with the equine program and is enthusiastic about its future.

“It’s a perfect fit for some of these kids,” she noted. “Sometimes they have trouble fitting in with traditional jobs in traditional situations. Here they have a chance to work with animals, to be outdoors and in a different setting. They’re exposed to the excitement of the racetrack, and that’s made a huge difference for some of these kids.”

So has Boys’ Haven’s willingness to accept young people who are often turned away by other agencies, Everett said.

“We’re very pleased with what they offer in terms of programs and guidance,” she said. “But we’re also pleased with the attitude of acceptance they have. They take some kids that other programs wouldn’t necessarily serve and give them an opportunity. That inclusive attitude has been a wonderful experience, not just for the young people but for our staff, too.”

Vern Rickert, executive director of Boys’ Haven, said the equine program’s progress is better than the staff had anticipated. And Grote said another national foundation is interested in perhaps supporting the program’s $266,000 annual budget.

“It’s a terrific success so far, but we’re going to continue to need financial support,” he noted. “We’ve had good support from foundations in Louisville and Lexington, and people in the equine industry are as excited about the program as we are.”

One of them, E. Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Farm and Sales Agency, said the “lack of skilled horsemen with formal training is one of the greatest weaknesses in our industry.”

“I look at the Boys’ Haven program as a win-win situation for our state and for the equine industry in Kentucky,” he said in a brochure produced for the program.