Smiles for Diversity
This St. George, Utah Organization Helps Lost Get an Education
The raid of the Texas FLDS compound caused the nation to focus on the women and children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the Lost Boys gained little additional attention. Smiles for Diversity works with former FLDS young men. This group has become known as the Lost Boys.
Smiles for Diversity, led by Shannon Price, runs a transitional house based in Saint George, Utah that helps the Lost Boys get an education. All the young men she works with share a skewed worldview, according to Shannon Price, the group's director. Price agreed to a telephone interview.
Services Offered by Smiles for Diversity
Most of the Lost Boys leave FLDS communities with the equivalent of an eigth grade education. Smiles for Diversity helps the Lost Boys finish high school, get their GED, and has helped some of the Lost Boys with college tuition.
A Well-Known Writer Helps One of the Lost Boys
Author John Krakauer contacted the organization when he did research for his book Under the Banner of Heaven. The author took in one of the Lost Boys and maintains a friendly relationship with him, but Krakauer does not currently work with the group. Some of the Lost Boys have been kicked out of the FLDS church, but 90% of the Lost Boys the group works with left the FLDS church of their own volition.
Local Support for Smiles for Diversity
The Saint George-based media group has gained national and international attention with the arrest of conviction and Warren Jeffs and the FLDS raid. John Krakauer's book on the Mormon murders made more people aware of the Lost Boys, but Price stated that she receives no help from churches in Saint George.
Working with the Lost Boys
The young men who reach the transitional home operated by Smiles for Diversity all come from a common restrictive religious background. Sometimes additional medical or physical help is needed by one of the residents of the transitional house. Price and her organization help secure these for the people who come to her group for hlep.
The directors set up mental and phyiscal health arrangements when needed and teach life skills that the Lost Boys lack because of being raised in the sheltered and restrictive environment of the FLDS church. Most of the Lost Boys come to the transitional home knowing no history beyond the signing of the constitution, and their science education is lacking. Many of the boys are unaware of the intelligent design versus evolution debate.
The goal of Smiles for Diversity is to give the Lost Boys the skills and the education they need to live in a world that is radically different from the way the Lost Boys' religious upbringing tells them to expect. The group's website gives information on the activities, projects, and ways to help the young men the group serves.
