Floor Statement - National Safe Place Week

NATIONAL SAFE PLACE WEEK

Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I would like to bring one other issue before the Senate today. I am talking about "National Safe Place Week." I rise today to thank my colleagues for passing SRES96, which designates this week, March 15 through 21, as "National Safe Place Week."

I am truly pleased that the Senate agrees that Project Safe Place is a valuable community resource which deserves our attention and our recognition.

Project Safe Place is a unique union of community agencies and the private sector that promotes the well-being of our Nation's troubled youth. It is an innovative program of nonresidential community locations where youth who are at risk or in crisis situations can obtain help quickly and find shelter if necessary.

The mission of Project Safe Place is to cultivate community involvement, to combat adolescent crime and substance addiction, and to help youth who are abused, threatened, lost or scared, or in an unsafe situation.

Since its creation in 1983, in Louisville, KY, the scope of Project Safe Place has spread to include more than 8,000 Safe Places nationwide, and more than 27,000 young people have sought help at these locations. We all agree that our Nation's youth are our most valuable resource. In our largest cities and our smallest towns, this resource is threatened every minute of every day and every week.

The threats are truly enormous. Every 4 minutes in this country, a youth is arrested for alcohol-related crimes. Every 7 minutes, a youth is arrested for drug-related crimes. And every 2 hours, a youth's life is snuffed out prematurely, making homicide the No. 2 killer of 10- to 14-year-olds, usually with alcohol and drug abuse as the major factor in the violent act that took the life. Nearly half of all adolescent murders and between 20 and 35 percent of adolescent suicides are directly linked to alcohol and to drug abuse. Despite all of our efforts, alcohol and drug abuse among teenagers continues to rise.

Child abuse and neglect also threaten our children. In 1995, Child Protection Service agencies reported that more than 1 million children were abused and neglected, and in the same year almost 1,000 children were known to have died as a result of abuse or neglect. Just like drug abuse, incidents of child abuse are increasing. Between 1986 and 1993-a span of only 7 years-substantiated reports rose by 67 percent.

Another threat to the safety of our children is the temptation to run away from these problems rather than facing them head on. Most runaway youth are not running to some thing; rather, they are running away from family problems, drug problems, or physical or sexual abuse. Unfortunately, runaways find out quickly that their solution can only bring about more problems for themselves. In order to survive on the streets, runaways typically turn to "survival sex," theft, panhandling, or drugs-either selling them to pay for food and shelter or taking them to relieve their pain.

All this paints a pretty dark picture for our Nation's youth. But there is hope. For many troubled teens-over 27,000 of them in fact-this Safe Place sign that you see here serves as a beacon-a beacon of hope, a beacon of opportunity, a beacon which points to the first step in a long and sometimes difficult but necessary road to salvation.

Here is how it works. Here is what the sign means. Here is what is behind the sign. Say you are a teenager with a major problem. You see the Safe Place sign outside of your local fast-food restaurant and you decide that you need help with whatever you are facing. You walk in. It is busy. But as soon as you mention Safe Place and ask an employee for help, you are taken into the back, where there is a quiet and comfortable situation and, most important, away from any of your friends who might happen to be in the restaurant or wonder what you are doing there.

You do not know it, but the employee you have talked to is already on the phone to the local youth shelter. The shelter calls back to tell the employee the name of the counselor who is already on his or her way, and within minutes the volunteer, who is the same gender as you, will arrive to talk with you and transport you back to a shelter if you want counseling and a safe place to stay. If you decide to go to the shelter, counselors will be there to help you resolve your problems. Also, your family will be notified so that they know you are all right.

Little did you know that the first step of walking up to the counter and asking for help would open up to you all the local community service organizations that you have in your area. Little did you know that it would be that easy to gain help for yourself when you need it.

It is almost as easy to become a Safe Place site. Now, I took that first step last year when I asked my regional office in Pocatello, ID, to consider becoming a Safe Place location. After my employees passed a background check, they attended a short training session to become familiar with the do's and the don'ts and the what if's of greeting those who might seek help. Remember, all an employee in a Safe Place location needs to do is act as the middle person between the victim and the local Safe Place office. The Safe Place volunteers and the local youth shelter take care of everything else.

As Safe Place grows in my home State of Idaho, I will ask that all of my regional offices might join the program as well. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to do the same in their regional offices. This morning-this very day-I have delivered information about Safe Place programs to each of my colleagues' offices, and I urge you to call the national Safe Place office to find out how you can join in this program. I also urge every business owner in the Nation or anyone who might be observing C-SPAN to talk about it and to encourage business owners to get involved. This is such an effortless way to give something back to the community you live in.

And community is what it is all about-the businesses in a community working together with Safe Place volunteers, and these private volunteers working together with community organizations and agencies. Project Safe Place brings together the best of every community into a long chain of people and resources working together to save young lives.

This chain is growing. Since I introduced the "National Safe Place" bill itself back in June of last year, 700 sites have been added to the Safe Place family. But this is only the beginning. The goal is to have a Safe Place in every State before the end of the millennium. That is not very far away. But I know that just as America's ingenuity created these Safe Place for kids, American industry and hard work is a guarantee that every troubled teen, every runaway and every abused or neglected child will know there is a Safe Place right in their own neighborhood if they need it.

Mr. President, I thank you. I yield back the balance of my time and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Source: Government Printing Office
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