|
DECATUR--Archbishop John F. Donoghue was among more than 150 supporters Nov.
3 who helped Boys Town of Georgia to dedicate its short-term Residential Center
for Girls located at 2591 Candler Road.
Msgr. Peter Dora, vicar general, and Msgr. Edward Dillon, pastor of Holy
Spirit Church, Atlanta, were also in attendance, as well as Georgia Lt. Gov.
Mark Taylor and Liane Levetan, chief executive officer of DeKalb County.
Up to 300 female juvenile offenders, ages 11 to 18, will be treated at the
center each year. The center is expected to house girls by the end of November.
The program is the first replication of Boys Town USA’s program in
Philadelphia, nationally recognized as a model for female staff-secure
detention by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Girls who complete Boys Town’s staff-secure detention program have a
re-arrest rate of about 13 percent, compared to an 80 percent re-arrest rate
for those in juvenile lock-up facilities.
“This is a time to celebrate,” said Ken Suddeth, marshal
of Muscogee County and a 1966 graduate of Boys Town. “These girls are
going to get the treatment they need from Boys Town, an organization that has
helped children get better for more than 80 years.”
Suddeth is also president of the Boys Town National Alumni Association and
serves on the Boys Town of Georgia Advisory Board.
Walter Hoff, president of Health Information Services, National Data Corp.
of Atlanta and a member of Boys Town USA’s National Board of Trustees,
also commented on the benefits of the new center.
“This short-term emergency facility provides care to a rapidly growing
population of female offenders,” he said.
Georgia juvenile officials call the Boys Town facility “an attention
center, not a detention center” and say there is a critical need for this
type of program, where children are secure and receive treatment and assessment
of their needs.
During a typical stay of less than a month, the girls receive intense
treatment from professional youth care workers as they learn relationship,
problem-solving and social skills. As in many states, Georgia’s juvenile
justice system previously provided only two options for female juvenile
offenders--returning home without treatment or a lock-up facility similar to
jail.
Father Val Peter, national executive director of Boys Town USA, said that it
is especially important to rehabilitate young girls.
“These are God’s blessed daughters and they desperately
need our help. We’ve been helping girls for 20 years. We know how to give
them back their childhood,” he said. “When boys run the streets, they
are not of much value to anyone. When girls run the streets, unfortunately,
they have economic value--prostitution and pornography. They also have
functional value. The wrong people are happy to have a runaway girl stay with
them. It’s not so with boys.”
Local foundations, corporations and individuals, including the Goizueta
Foundation, the Katherine John Murphy Foundation and the Joseph B. Whitehead
Foundation, helped Boys Town of Georgia raise $3.3 million to cover
construction costs and the first year’s operating expenses.
“The rapid response to this campaign demonstrates Georgia’s
concern for troubled youth,” said John Gillin, senior vice president of
The Coca-Cola Company and a member of Boys Town USA’s National Board of
Trustees.
Since 1996, Boys Town of Georgia has provided children with therapeutic
foster care through its treatment Foster Family Services program. Formerly
located at 250 E. Ponce de Leon Ave. in Decatur, Boys Town’s foster
parenting program offices will also move to the Candler Road location.
Boys Town of Georgia works with other local youth service agencies to
provide a continuum of care during and after the juvenile justice process. In
addition, Boys Town of Georgia has consulted and trained child-care
administrators and staff at local agencies in managing aggressive youth and
other outreach programs.
Nationally, Boys Town USA, which was founded in 1917, directly cared for
more than 33,000 children last year through 18 sites in 15 states and the
District of Columbia. Boys Town USA also assisted more than 1.7 million
children and families through its outreach and training programs, including the
Boys Town National Hotline, 1-800-448-3000.
|
