St. Cabrini Home to close
By Lissa Harris
1/24/11 - 8:51 pm
1/24/11 - 8:51 pm
We just received a press release from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Catholic order that has run the St. Cabrini Home for troubled girls in Esopus since 1890:
The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have engaged in ministry at the St. Cabrini Home for more than one hundred years. After careful and thoughtful consideration, and in consultation with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, the Board of Trustees for the St. Cabrini Home has decided to commence a prompt and orderly discontinuation of the Residential Treatment Care (RTC) Program. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are saddened by the closure of the RTC Program, but remain committed and confident that the life and ministry of the St. Cabrini Home will continue in a different form.
As we noted last week, representatives of the St. Cabrini Home met recently with Esopus town officials to discuss potential plans for their 600-acre property.
Update: Adam Bosch at the Times Herald-Record has a story on the home's closing. An excerpt:
The sisters, board members and state regulators said the home decided to close because of financial trouble. Federal tax documents from 2008 (the most recent year available) showed St. Cabrini was more than $2.4 million in debt. At a recent meeting with community members, Executive Director Ilze Earner warned that government reimbursement rates were not keeping up with the cost of care for roughly 40 troubled girls who remained at the home. Those girls are expected to be placed elsewhere over the next month.
"Unfortunately, after trying to talk with the Office of Children & Family Services and trying to bring the home into financial viability, it just kept going in the wrong direction," board member Roger Ramjug said.
Ramjug, the story notes, was fostered at St. Cabrini as a boy, and says that despite its problems, the home has done a lot of good for the young people it served:
"It was about the kids," Ramjug said. "They were disturbed, they were wayward, they had family issues — but this home sustained their lives."
Comments
Ramjug, the story notes, was
Ramjug, the story notes, was fostered at St. Cabrini as a boy, and says that despite its problems, the home has done a lot of good for the young people it served
I am sure they PREVIOUSLY did good, and that they USED to serve and protect the individuals that they were intended on doing so, however over time they have totally lost site of their Mission, they lost the Value and Reason for which they were to serve, that is where it went down, not finances, but lack of good guidance.
Sadly however they still have
Sadly however they still have part of their facilities open, these places are run by those that can take the $9. an hour they offer and thus that is the job they provide, cheap adn unworthy of helping and being there.
Sadly the lost of the mission has now forced closing of the Girls Facilities, however the Boys Group homes are still active and in need of dire emergancy help.