Craig Daily Press

Craig — The care given to juveniles who commit sexual offenses needs to change, and that’s what the Foster Care Recruitment Committee hopes to accomplish.

“It’s very sad to see the children who need help be sent out of the county,” said Dede Huston, Social Services foster care coordinator and a member of the committee.

“It’s very similar to what used to happen with special education cases when they used to send them to asylums,” she said.

She referred to the current practice of sending those youths to out-of-home treatment centers, the closest of which are in Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction.

Juveniles who commit acts of sexual harm should not be marked “sex offenders,” said Marie Peer, Moffat County Social Services director. Many of them, 80 percent, never commit a similar crime again, she added.

The current treatment practice in Moffat County, or lack thereof, is why the Recruitment Committee was formed, Peer said.

Bringing a treatment facility to Moffat County isn’t likely because of costs, and bringing treatment providers to the area has been difficult.

“There was a group of us that realized we don’t have the resources here to care for juveniles that commit sexual harm,” Peer said.

In the process to fix that, the Recruitment Committee — made up of Huston, Social Services caseworker Stacy Durham and Child Welfare Supervisor Matt Harris — met Thursday with Moffat County School District and county probation office officials to explore how the community can find foster families.

The Recruitment Committee took the floor and outlined possible initiatives it wants to pursue to attract foster families.

How to attract them is the primary question, Durham said.

She and other recruitment members plan to set up booths at events each month, to find people and to raise the mission’s awareness. Social Services also would want to place advertisements in local media, Peer said.

Attempting to target qualified families is a consideration for the Recruitment Committee.

Jane Harmon, Moffat County High School principal, recommended the team look at some of the parents she has come to know.

“I think there are some really qualified parents in the community who no longer have children in their home and could be willing to give of themselves in this way,” Harmon said.

Peer recommended the group look at working with local churches.

Durham said they also plan to attend community service organization meetings, such as Craig Rotary Club.

The bigger questions of funding for those juveniles’ needs — such as treatment and parent training, which would involve one more class than other foster parent agreements, Peer said — as well as how to integrate children back into the community and the School District remain.

Funding for one-on-one supervision and informed supervision training is “not a burden the School District would be able to pick up,” Harmon said.

One thing Peer is certain about, people should not be afraid to embrace these children, she said.

“It’s vital to understand how foster families benefit the lives of people,” Peer said. “Just being somebody they know and somebody they can count on is important to kids.

“Kids this age are developing an identity. To put a label like (sex offender) on kids who are in the middle of finding themselves — I think we want to be careful we are not encouraging or imposing this definition or label and make these kids think, ‘Oh, I’m a sex offender.’”

For more information on becoming a foster family, call Social Services at 824-8282.