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It’s the sea change, that is seeing a whole new change in lives.
A Word From our Co-Founder
Hello, I am Robbie Smith, Co-Founder of Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor is unique because of its waterfront aspect; this is an important part of the regeneration of the individual boy. In 1982, when Doug and I took in our first boys for a short stay, we had no idea that this would become our life’s work. But what we were doing with the boys was working. God seemed to have a plan, so we decided to commit ourselves to the boys for one year.
In 1984, when we officially incorporated Safe Harbor, we had also committed our own financial resources to support the program. We trusted God that even after our own resources were gone, he would help provide the funding if He wanted us to continue. Because we felt that the government was not and never would be very good at raising children, we decided to accept NO government funding. God has been faithful. Through the time, talent, and treasure of countless individuals, organizations, and businesses, He has blessed Safe Harbor and all of the boys and families we have served.
Sailing and boating, and going to sea are often romanticized (and it can be romantic), but it also requires knowledge, respect, self-reliance, and perseverance. Knowledge of the ocean and river and the boat and its equipment. Respect for the elements and your equipment, its strengths and limitations. Self-reliance because out there, no government agency, parent or friend is available to bail you out of problems, think for you, or rescue you from the decisions you make. Finally, perseverance is because if you quit or give up, you die, and there isn’t someone else to do it for you.
These are the same principles and qualities that help at-risk boys get back on track. These youth need a broader view of the world (i.e., one that isn’t self-centered). They need knowledge; respect for authority, themselves, and others; self-reliance instead of the government or social agency dependence; they have to be taught to think and analyze and then act without depending on others to do it for them, and perseverance to change and overcome challenges that we all face in life.
All of these qualities require character and integrity. Character is built action by action. Integrity is doing what is decent and right and adhering to a standard even if it bears a cost. All these together lead to a vision for what is possible, for things that one never imagined they could or would do.
This is what boys at Safe Harbor learn and practice day in and day out for the length of their stay. They have to be given choices in a controlled environment; once they begin this change process, their choices become a natural consequence or natural reward. Those, in turn, help build self-confidence, integrity, and character.
Safe Harbor helps a boy become a young man of character and integrity, with a vision for their own future. Once the boys have an “I can and will” attitude, they naturally branch out into caring for others. Therefore, community service is an important part of Safe Harbor’s program. Learning to give into a community makes it your own, and what we claim as our own, we take care of and have pride in. This is why each donor, sponsor, and volunteer makes a real difference at Safe Harbor; it becomes their own.
Since its inception, the Safe Harbor program has provided each boy with the mental, physical and spiritual strength to succeed in life. Water and boating have always played an integral part in our lives. Life on the water provides serenity and peace and unequaled opportunities for life.
Thank you to parents, guardians, donors, and others who are willing to sacrifice to turn a boy’s life into a ripple that becomes “WAVES OF CHANGE” as he impacts others throughout his life.
Robbie W. Smith D. Ministry, M.A.
Counseling Psychology
Co-Founder
“If it wasn’t for people like the Smiths, who do so much for others before they do for themselves, where would we be as people? It was really an honor to portray Robbie (in the Safe Harbor movie).”
—Nancy Travis, Film, TV and Broadway Actress
The CBN News Story About Safe Harbor Boys Home
Safe Harbor: Anchoring Young Men for Life
By Efram Graham, CBN Staff Writer
For the last 30 years, more than 1,000 boys have dropped anchor and found peace on the shores of the Saint James River in Jacksonville, Fla. This is where they found the Safe Harbor Boys Home.
Tyler, who is now 18, arrived at the home 15 months ago. He had spent years on a path of crime, drugs, and bad behavior.
“I look at it in two ways,” he told CBN News. “I’d either be dead, or I’d be in jail. One of the two guaranteed.”
These days, Tyler dreams of becoming a chef and owning his own restaurants. Like so many of his Safe Harbor peers, the home is where Tyler found hope.
“When you get here, you kind of resent it,” he said, remembering his first few weeks at Safe Harbor. “You have never been in such a structured environment, and the rules, wake up times. When you eat and what you eat.”
“It’s definitely one of those once in a lifetime experiences where you do it, and you are going to look back on it the rest of your life,” said Will, another young man who has been at Safe Harbor a little more than a year.
Will spent months skipping school before he found the home. He hated high school, but these days he dreams of being a mechanic and going to college.
The Key to a Structured Experience
Water is at the center of each of the boy’s new structured experiences. Executive Director Robbie Smith is one of the captains steering the successful ship. By her side is her husband, Doug, who is the program director. This is their life’s work, but neither takes a salary.
“Faith is what keeps us buoyed up,” Smith told CBN News. “And it is what keeps us afloat and keep us going and moving forward because we know there is a purpose behind what we are doing. And we know there is a purpose for our life.”
Neither of the Smiths planned to open a boys’ home in 1984. Fast forward 25 years, and the story of how it began is the focus of an original Hallmark Channel movie. “Safe Harbor” premieres on the cable network Saturday, May 30. Check local listings.
The film begins with the pair preparing to sail the country on their yacht after selling Doug’s successful business and retiring early. Before they can begin their adventure, a friend who Robbie knew from her career as a child therapist asks them to look after two teenage boys in trouble.
“These couple of boys come into our lives, which subsequently changes the whole direction of our life,” Smith said. “But we really feel like at that point, that is when we start to work on God’s plan. Not that we knew it because if we knew it, we might have sabotaged it.”
95 Percent Success Rate
Safe Harbor Boys Home has a 95 percent success rate. In the last 25 years, the residential high school program has grown to include lessons in welding and nautical upholstery. Between their studies, the boys learn to build hydroplane racing boats and prepare all the meals at home. Safe Harbor can accommodate 15 boys at a time. There are 12 in the program now. Each boy lives aboard his very own boat and is fully responsible for all the upkeep.
“The boat is donated,” Doug explained, who can see himself in each of the boys he serves. “They fix the boat, and as they fix the boat, they learn a skill. And as they learn a skill, they discover they can do anything they put their mind to.”
As a kid, Doug spent lots of time close to the water. Doctors diagnosed his father as a paranoid schizophrenic, which drove Doug to run away from home as a teenager. He spent many nights sleeping under Jacksonville’s Maine Street Bridge.
“I lived with a prostitute on Maine Street because she really didn’t care that I was a minor child on the run from the law,” he said. “Her life was bad enough. Mine was nothing.”
A dog also kept Doug company while he was living on the street. When a police officer shot his dog, Doug assaulted the officer. But a group of fishermen saved him from jail. Instead, they encouraged a judge to send him to seaman school.
“The only thing important in this world is people,” Doug explained.
He believes his troubled past prepared him to serve the boys of Safe Harbor.
“God has shown me where the true treasure lies,” he said.
One of Safe Harbor Boys Home’s First Residents
Steve Barnes was one of the first residents of Safe Harbor Boys Home. He arrived from a juvenile detention center in 1985. He can see himself and his anger dramatized in the film. He traded his anger for peace shortly after arriving at the home. More than 20 years later, he has traded a successful journalism career for a life as a Florida politician. He is also a husband and the father of three girls. He says he owes his success to the Smiths.
“They help me turn my life around,” Barnes told CBN News. “But what people don’t always see is there is a ripple effect. So that my kids are benefited from this. Their kids will be benefited by this, their classmates. It is just a ripple that goes out in all directions.”
Waves of Change
Waves of change start with a ripple. Doug and Robbie now hope the television movie that tells their story will inspire others.
“There is no shortage of kids that need help,” Doug said with tears in his eyes. “And I believe America has a lot of wonderful people in it that want to make a difference, but they just don’t know what to do.”
*Originally published May 28, 2009
