The St. Jude's Emergency Children’s Shelter provides 24-hour therapeutic residential care for children ages newborn to 13 years. These children have been removed from their homes and are in emergency crisis situations, typically due to drug abuse, alcoholism or abuse by caretakers. The Emergency Children's Shelter, formerly known as the Comal County Emergency Children's Shelter, has been in operation since 1987. It became part of
St. Jude's Ranch for Children in 1997.
The primary goal of the Emergency Children's Shelter is to provide a safe haven for little children in distress. We provide security, love, consistency and safety. We make a positive impact on each child who stays with us, whether for a few hours, many days, or even several months. The Emergency Children's Shelter is staffed to house 16 children. An important part of the program is its ability to provide full psychological and developmental
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assessments to all children admitted. We also design a customized curriculum for each child. Taken together, these help the Shelter’s staff develop an individualized treatment plan for each child. It also helps social workers find appropriate placements when the children leave the Emergency Children's Shelter.
When a child is admitted to the Shelter, our immediate task is to meet the child's physical needs. Typically children arrive with only the clothes they are wearing. In many cases a warm meal, bath and clean clothes are the first things we can do to give the child a feeling of security. Understanding children under the age of five are in the prime "learning time" of their lives, we seek to engage each child with educational games, projects and activities that will help them develop to the full capabilities of their ages. |
