Emergency Housing Center for estranged Children in Arizona

When children in dangerous situations are removed from their homes, it usually takes at least a day to place them in foster care. Now, a new emergency placement center is acting as a safe haven for such children in Phoenix, Arizona. A statistical study by the non-profit charitable institution, Childhelp, in Arizona suggests that on average 15 children are removed each day from their homes. The foster care system has about 17,000 children at present.

In the past, children spent a night in the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) field offices before being placed in to foster care. To ease this condition, the department and the non-profit organization, Childhelp have partnered to start a child emergency placement centre in Phoenix. The centre will function 365 days a year and provide children who have been neglected and abused, a comfortable place to stay for 24 hours after they have been removed from their homes.

The centre will have DCS placement specialists and employees working. Childhelp volunteers will also contribute towards the basic care and necessities of children such as providing clothes, food and toys.

The DCS and Childhelp began planning for the center a month ago and received a lot of encouragement and support from the city of Phoenix. The city also provided them with a space for the noble purpose. The two groups worked together to supply the center with decorations, beds and other essentials for the children’s comfort. This being just the beginning of such an institution, the Child Safety Director Greg McKay hopes to seek help from the general public for such a noble cause:

“I’m really calling for more families to consider themselves as possible foster families. We really need the public to join in with us and try to help us with this problem because our community, unfortunately, is in bad shape.”

The Center has started to function this June 1.