EDMONTON
Neighbour no stranger to regular Bosco runaways
Nearby residents of Bosco Homes have tried for years to reduce the number of runaways from the facility, says neighbour Jim Stephens. Group-home staff confirm more than 200 children are reported missing from the facility every year.
"Something's wrong, something's broken, and we've known it's been broken for a while," Stephens said Wednesday. "I'm disappointed I couldn't be more effective and make a difference a year ago."
Two 14-year-old boys charged in connection with the deaths of a man and woman on an acreage in Sherwood Park allegedly took off from Bosco and were found eight or nine hours later in a stolen truck in Edmonton. Executive director Gus Rozycki said more than 200 children are reported missing from the complex each year, though often those are the same kids running away several times.
There is no fence. It is across a shallow lake from the Strathcona Wilderness Centre and near Hude Estates, where Stephens lives. Bosco Homes is made up of five houses. Forty-eight children live there. There is one employee for every three children. There is a school on the property.
Stephens said children from Bosco have started fires while AWOL. Others broke into a shed on a farm owned by an 80-year-old man and stole his hunting knives. Once, three girls turned up on his front step without shoes, Stephens said. He called Bosco. Staff hadn't realized the girls were missing, he said. Stephens wants all at-risk youth moved off the property until staff have procedures in place to ensure they won't run away. "Get them out of there to a place that's better for them."
Rozycki said the complex doesn't have a fence because the children "are not sentenced to a program. Kids in care do leave for a whole range of reasons, some simply to be alone, and we find them somewhere on the property. Even if they return on their own, if they've already been reported missing, they're part of the statistics."
The children have been apprehended from their homes. Some have been abused and some may be suicidal, Rozycki said. The majority are placed with Bosco Homes by Edmonton Child and Family Services, although children from across the country are accepted. The organization is a registered charity, incorporated in 1987. Staff now have about 200 children under their care across Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
RCMP Cpl. Darren Anderson said the crime rate is low in the area around Bosco Homes. There are many runaways reported, but "most of the time the children are found very, very quickly. A lot of the times they don't get off the 120 acres that Bosco encompasses."
In the legislature Wednesday, NDP MLA Rachel Notley called for a public inquiry into the foster-care system. Tuesday's charges come in the wake of three other recent incidents the deaths of two children in care and the serious injury of another. "What we're looking for is a full public inquiry into the system of child protection in Alberta a broad-based inquiry looking at systematic issues that impact on child- protection services," she said. "It's our view that it's a very piecemeal system. A good deal of it has been contracted out over the years with non-profits. We don't have a consistent set of standards that we're applying to provide the best care for these kids, and to provide the greatest level of safety for the community."
Child and Youth Services Minister Janis Tarchuk rejected the call for an inquiry. She said an initial review of the case involving the two youths indicates that proper decisions were made and proper protocols were followed by staff. "There was never any indication that either of these youths was ever a risk to themselves or others, but obviously as we move forward with information we will continue to look at the situation."
Elise Stolte and Darcy Henton
4 June 2009
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Neighbour+stranger+regular+Bosco+runaways/1661414/story.html
