CHILDREN OF DIVERSITY
aka “The Lost Boys"

The Diversity Foundation assists young men (aka “Lost Boys”) and women who are former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“FLDS”), a polygamist community in southern Utah and northern Arizona.

The term, “lost boys”, was coined by the media in reference to the “lost boys of the Sudan”.   The two groups share the commonality of being separated from their families with little or no support.  In the case of the FLDS, the youth have either been asked or have chosen to leave their community and, consequently faced ostracizing by their families.  The reasons for leaving the community vary from exhibiting behaviors that the FLDS practice does not accept to expressing normal teenage rebellion which is not congruent with the LFDS culture, or the pursuit of a formal education and mainstream lifestyle.
 
The Diversity Foundation began assisting the FLDS youth (men, women, and single parent families) in 2002.  Our efforts consist of providing the opportunity for a quality education, medical and dental health support, psychological counseling, life skills instruction, and social services. 

Many of these young people have excelled scholastically. They continue to receive high marks of achievement in high school and college. They are enthusiastic about their education and have pursued college degrees in areas of engineering, medical, accounting, business, law, psychology, et al. Because of outside support, The Diversity Foundation can assist these children with the opportunity to be self-determined and contributing adults.