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| St. PJ’s Development Director Brian Chavez, Board Member Dennis Stanko and Executive Director James Castro; Valero Senior Vice President Kirk Saffell and St. PJ’s Board Chair Lori Flores of SWBC.
Carol Baass Sowa | Today's Catholic |
BY CAROL BAASS SOWA
TODAY’S CATHOLIC
SAN ANTONIO • “The timing couldn’t be better, the need couldn’t be greater, unfortunately, to have an emergency shelter designed for adolescents,” said James Castro, executive director for St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home (St. PJ’s) at the Nov. 18 groundbreaking for their new Valero Emergency Shelter.
Made possible through the generosity of the Valero Energy Corporation, the new state of the art, 13,105-square foot facility will be able to serve 32 adolescents in three connected buildings designed by Chesney Morales and Associates and constructed by Kopplow Construction. Valero has pledged $1 million to the $3.2 million project.
While St. PJ’s itself provides emergency care for children from infancy to 17 years who come from backgrounds of abuse or neglect, the new complex is slated to specifically house teenagers, who in addition to facing this normal transitional time in life, are dealing with challenges in their home life as well.
The new Valero Emergency Shelter for adolescents came about as the result of discussions with Child Protective Services, the child welfare system, family court judges and other community stakeholders, related Castro. “Unfortunately,” he said, “those kids who get exposed to abuse and neglect, as a singled out population, have the highest risk for getting involved with the juvenile justice system.” Trauma impacts children, he related, and as a result of this hurt and stress, they manifest behaviors that can be against civil law or school rules.
The new facility will allow St. PJ’s to meet immediate needs, as well as the future. “This will allow us to continue to collaborate with juvenile justice, the juvenile probation system,” he said, “because they are trying to work towards reducing kids escalating into their system and thus needing to be put in juvenile detention or to be put in a lock-down facility.”
At St. PJ’s, the youngsters will be in a non-secure setting where they can attend the school of their choice, either Catholic or in the San Antonio Independent School District. The facility’s unique design features a separate building to house each gender, with an administrative unit between and covered walkways connecting all, and will allow further separation between 13-14-year-olds and the older adolescents, with an open sitting area between the two areas. Each residential building will have its own group room, laundry area and kitchenette, surrounded by two-person bedrooms. “It’s less traumatic for the children,” said Castro, “and it allows, as best as can be, a more normalized setting.”
He pointed out that these young peoples’ offenses are not violent ones and primarily involve truancy and curfew issues, that can lead to noncompliance with their probation. “This emergency shelter, we believe,” he added, “is going to help us impact reducing the number of children who’ve been exposed to abuse and neglect from escalating into the juvenile system in the first place.” They will be able to stay here from one to 90 days, as needed, and receive mental health therapy, along with recreational and other activities.
Besides offering an opportunity for future partnerships with juvenile probation, St. PJ’s looks forward to partnering as well with the Archdiocese of San Antonio in the nearby Mission Concepción Park Athletic Complex and offering in return use of St. PJ’s recreational facilities, with its gymnasium and basketball court. Castro noted they are presently working with the archdiocesan archives in researching the history of St. PJ’s, founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1891, with plans being to establish a heritage room.
Kirk Saffell, senior vice president for Valero, speaking prior to the official groundbreaking ceremony at St. PJ’s, summed up the significance of the new adolescent emergency shelter. “This facility is going to be a blessing to St. PJ’s,” he said. “It’s going to be a blessing to San Antonio and it’s going to be a blessing to the children of the state.”