Veering off my usual morning route, instead of Sonic first, for some reason I can’t recall, I rounded the corner from South Montgomery to Academy Road here in Starkville and noticed a sign in front of the fire station there. It read “Safe Place.”
I had heard of “Safe Place,” but I didn’t remember in what context, so out of curiosity, I spoke with Shonda at the Starkville main fire station and she said Chief Yarborough had been approached by the Sally Kate Winters Family Services organization headquartered in West Point to support the program.
Jacklyn Weir of the Sally Kate Winters organization said the program assists youth in troubled circumstances.
The national program is designed for children mostly from ages 12 to 17 years. They help those who have problems with bullying, neglect or abuse and have run away from home or who may have even been kicked out of their homes.
The website defines it as a national youth outreach and prevention program for young people in need of immediate help and safety. It is designed to include public spaces and businesses as accessible and welcoming sites for those children in need.
The website statistics on runaway teens are startling. Records show more than 2.8 million teens run away from home each year, and of those, 50 percent report their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving and didn’t care.
I can’t imagine the circumstances that would drive parents and children so far apart. It is a sad story for those so young and still in the formative years desperately needing adult guidance and supervision.
The statistics for our area aren’t as overwhelming, but each one represents a potentially lost productive citizen and a frightened and lost child. It is a price we can ill-afford. The past fiscal year 26 runaway children in our area were cared for by Safe Place.
Sally Kate Winters Family Services handles an eight-county region. There is a concentration in the Golden Triangle of Safe Place locations. Currently in Starkville we have four fire stations participating. We need more locations.
Starkville Police Chief Nichols has expressed a willingness to include that as part of his community policing effort. I was in a meeting recently where the sheriff of Lee County and the police chief in Louisville were interested in the program.
In Columbus the YWCA, Arts Council, Boys and Girls Club and library are participating along with the fire stations.
Safe Place seems to be a way for the premature abandonment and emancipation of children to be stopped by allowing “the local village” to step in where the parents can’t or simply refuse to tread.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” the African proverb made a household expression in 1996 by then first lady Hillary Clinton, finds expression in this important program.
For our better selves we should take note of the ways we can help our future meet their potential by encouraging public and private agencies to become active partners of the Safe Place village.
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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