Tulsa Boy Home Needing Volunteers, Mentors

The Tulsa Boys Home is looking for families who want to foster or adopt. 

Saturday, February 4th 2023, 6:30 pm

By: News On 6, MaKayla Glenn


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The Tulsa Boys Home is looking for families who want to foster or adopt. 

The Tulsa Boy Home has been around for over a 100 years, and the staff wants to make sure every boy finds a home. 

Lesley Taylor began volunteering 10 years ago because she wanted to mentor.  

"I had the chance to apply for the individual mentor program and Dakota, who became my son a couple years later, he and I were randomly paired together," Taylor said. 

Taylor said she knew she wanted to adopt kids. After mentoring Dakota for six months, she was ready to make him part of her family. 

“It really didn't hit me until I'm looking around the boys’ home one day and thinking I'm right in the midst of the opportunity I used to dream about,” Taylor said.  

Staff at the Tulsa Boys Home said it’s especially hard to find families for older children. 

There are around 9,000 children in Oklahoma’s foster care system, DHS said.   

The pandemic has made it harder to find families for the kids in their care, staff said. 

Before covid, the boys’ home had more than 200 volunteers every month. 

The goal is to get volunteers and mentors back out to boys home leaders said. 

"When we were first paired together, the volunteer coordinator told me that if today was Dakota's wedding there would be no one on his side of the aisle," Taylor said.  

Taylor adopted Dakota when he was 17. She says it was the best decision she could have made.

"It was pretty incredible to me to see the opportunity to include Dakota in our family and it didn't take long. I had the full support of my family,” Taylor said.   

What started with mentoring, helped Taylor and Dakota find their family.

People at Tulsa Boys Home know finding a family can change the lives of these young people for the better.

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