Staff writer
Tough economy continues to cause stress for children
COEUR d'ALENE -- Foreclosures and high unemployment continue to fray family ties and place more children on the street.
The National Runaway Switchboard reported last week that since 2006, it has received 200 percent more crisis calls to its hotline involving youth who identify economics as one of the reasons for their call. The NRS serves as the federally designated national communication system for homeless and runaway youth.
November is designated as National Runaway Prevention Month.
"We really do everything we can to intercept and intervene before a child runs away, and to help the court system determine what the issue is when they are returned," said Coeur d'Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood.
Reports of runaways have gone down locally, but not every juvenile that goes missing has someone who cares enough to call police.
More than 50 percent of the nation's youth in shelters and on the streets report that their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving and did not care, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office's reports on homeless and runaway youth.
Calls reporting missing children in Coeur d'Alene declined by nearly 40 percent since 2006 when 151 calls were documented.
Statewide, the number of runaways apprehended dropped 20 percent since 2006, according to "Crime in Idaho" reports compiled annually by state law enforcement agencies.
Police officers in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Spirit Lake and Kootenai County sheriff's deputies apprehended 260 runaways in 2006. The same agencies retrieved 252 runaway youth in 2008.
Coeur d'Alene's police department partners with the county's juvenile justice departments, the school district and local social service agencies that assist youth at risk of running away from home, Wood said.
Having city police department school resource officers in the buildings makes a big difference, she said.
"We're fortunate in our district to have them, to have that one-on-one contact with the kids," Wood said.
The department sheltered five school children last week, she said.
"It was a difficult poverty situation with people who need more parenting skills," Wood said.
Brandi Smitherman, director of Coeur d'Alene's Project Safe Place, said they are seeing a few more kids at their drop-in center, while the number of calls seeking shelter for kids in crisis has tripled in recent months.
Project Safe Place provides intervention services for youth living in situations where abuse, neglect or economic hardships exist. The agency also offers emergency sheltering.
It's often the only place available for teenage boys whose families become homeless.
"There aren't that many agencies that will shelter boys over the age of 12," Smitherman said.
Calls come in to Project Safe Place from youth who are having a hard time at home, Smitherman said, who want to find out what their options are before leaving.
They usually see those kids in their drop-in center for mentoring, she said.
"We're getting a ton of calls from families who are feeling the pressure because of the economic downturn who are afraid they're not going to be able to keep their families together," she said.
Kelli Aiken, a counselor at Lakes Magnet Middle School in Coeur d'Alene, said she's seen more families in her office this fall under those circumstances.
Aiken hasn't seen many runaways, but said: "We have a lot of kids bouncing from family to family, from couch to couch."
Many of those children don't tell them what's going on at home, she said.
Having places to refer families in crisis to makes a big difference when it comes to keeping them together, Aiken said.
Since opening in July, St. Vincent de Paul's one-stop H.E.L.P. center on Harrison Avenue has made it easier for families to access services, she said, because many of them lack transportation to go to different locations for assistance.
"When the kids are in here, I have a pretty good list of agencies I can send them to," Aiken said.
At Lakes Magnet Middle School they also have the Wolverine Den, a place where kids can pick up donated school supplies or clothes their families can't afford.
"A teacher might send a student down because his shoes are falling apart," Aiken said.
Or, a child might come into her office and tell Aiken she's been wearing the same pants for three weeks.
"Unfortunately, they (the kids) don't wear signs on their chests that say things like, 'My family was just kicked out of our home.'"
The kids don't say they're hungry because there isn't enough food available, Aiken said, or that they didn't sleep last night because they don't have a bed, or that their clothes are dirty because they don't have access to a washing machine.
"This is the reality of what is going on in our community," Aiken said.
Bob Loblaw wrote on Nov 3, 2009 11:46 AM: