 Yes, my name is James Castro. I'm the CEO of St. Peter St. Joseph children's home here in San Antonio And I'm going to start off tell telling you a few minutes about who we are and how we came to be Because it's relevant in the context of how we care for these unaccompanied children St. PJ's was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Incarnate Word way back in 1869 when the city of San Antonio was still growing up The city still didn't have a hospital or infirmary and so the sisters arrived here in 1869 to set up an infirmary The sisters immediately as they had their hospital and unfortunately when people passed away that had children The sisters took in the children and that's how they got into the orphanage business And so they had this four-story building downtown San Antonio and two of the floors quickly became the orphanage caring for kids It was in 1874 that the sisters opened St. Joseph's orphanage for girls And then it was in 1890 that they opened an orphanage for boys They were operating that way for a number of years and then unfortunately tragedy hit the sisters and in 1912 The boys orphanage burned down and so that obviously was a big a big tragedy for our city That's when the Catholic Church stepped in and the bishop at the time said you know what sisters Let's get you out of downtown and all the growth and all the hustle and bustle We've got some property across the street. Well, I shouldn't say there wasn't a street We got some property next to Mission Concepcion. So in 1912 The sisters moved the boys orphanage to our current property over there on Mission Road It was in the late 20s that the sisters also then got enough money to build the girls orphanage And so we've been collectively operating as an orphanage on that property Since that time since 1913 Then what happened is the states all across the country Started regulating and licensing orphanages what also happened started changing too is like these two are that just spoke before me is our State our countries started looking at how to care for children differently than just property and that was a good thing obviously for kids and so St. PJ's made it made a Transition from caring from orphan children to abused and neglected children in the late 60s early 70s and that's when St. PJ's children's home also made a transition from being under the operations of the sisters of charity To its own separate 501 C3 not for profit. And so we've been have our own board of governors that Overseas somebody like myself the CEO yet We are still connected to the Catholic Church the San Antonio arch diocese the arch diocese owns the land We're St. PJ's is that yet? We have a separate operation. So how it is for St. PJ's is we've got the arch Diocese which we have the arch Bishop and St. PJ's is one of the social service agencies that falls under them And so let me tell you what we do today They're at St. PJ's we have a hundred and forty beds on our campus Our campus is still about 20 acres today. We have approximately about a hundred and 60,000 square feet of space in our 12 buildings and those hundred and forty children those hundred and forty beds are for newborns All the way up to 18 years old We have at St. PJ's done. I think a heck of a job. We have a great history for caring for children food Shelter clothing Education those kind of things we we've always done a good job of that I think what really distinguishes St. PJ's today And I think why we're a great fit for serving and caring for these unaccompanied children is who we've become in the last Couple of years my background prior to coming to St. PJ's I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist a graduate of St. Mary's University and prior to coming to St. PJ's I worked in the mental health system Substance abuse mental retardation for an organization here in town called the Center for Healthcare Services So that organization cares for Those children and adults who have the most severe issues in mental health substance abuse mental retardation So as the director of children's operations One third of the kids that we cared for over there were primarily referrals from the child protective services system Another third came from our Baird County juvenile probation system and then another third came from our independent school districts All right, so I got I got a lot of experience working in that forum Working with children with severe trauma issues as well as working with their families So I brought that history over to St. PJ's who already had a robust counseling center as part of our campus Providing counseling services for our kids yet I saw that we could do more because one of the things that I got exposed to in the whole child welfare system And I know you're all gonna shake your head on this when I when I kind of put this out there But no surprise kids who have suffered trauma of abuse and neglect be it here in the US are coming from other parts of The world guess what kids who suffered abuse and neglect make up the highest Percentage of our homeless population Any surprise no kids who've been abused and neglected make up the highest Percentage of people that are in jail that are in prison Kids who've been abused and neglected make up the highest percentage of prostitution 90% 90% of all confirmed Murderers were abused as children Okay Other statistics that you're all familiar with Who makes up the highest percentages of our teen pregnancy? Abused and neglected kids. Who do you think possibly makes up the highest percentage of our school dropouts? abused and neglected kids So here at st. PJ's we have become Singly focused not only on food and shelter and clothing which we do very well, but how do you heal? Children of abuse and neglect how do you break the cycle because you've also probably no surprise The highest percentage of people who abuse and neglected and neglect their children is who? People who've been abused and neglected So there at st. PJ's we're working hard to heal kids So we've we've developed a process of how we do that with using state-of-the-art Information best practices on not only integrating things such as therapy which we do all of our children all of the immigrant children When they come to st. PJ's within 24 hours, they're seeing a clinician within 24 hours, okay? All of the children also have a case manager that they see within 24 hours One of the things that we did there at st. PJ's is where the children are kept in the dorms on our campus Is our therapists and our case managers their offices are in the dorm? All right, they're not in the administration building So they have access to the children the children have access to these professional individuals at any time any moment Yes, they still have structured, you know counseling of times and they have group appointments Which is all good yet they have access to the people who can help them the best and the most at any given time So that's really really important now I say that we do that for the unaccompanied children, but guess what we were already doing that for the children We care for from cps. So my point is on that issue. It's part of the norm how we care for children So these children right away God-willing are already on the road to healing on the road to hope and that's one of the things that I believe Assist our legal folks Tremendously because if you have a child that is less afraid less stressed right starting to have hope Hopefully they're more open to open up and tell their story and talk about the things that they've been through So what else does st. PJ's do there for caring for these kids? Well right away We have we have teachers part of our staff and their certified teachers and we have teachers aides And so the children Monday through Friday are in a like a classroom like environment from nine to three and We have them in different Classrooms based upon their gender and their age and then we evaluate we assess we ask questions to find out What kind of education what level have they had or had not and then our teachers make up individual plans to work with that child Now it was as it was shared by Jonathan the children that are with us aren't there with us for very long Maybe three to four weeks. So what do we do in three to four weeks? Well, right away? We obviously start teaching them English How to speak it and how to write it? We also start teaching them math. Can they you know, how are they with numbers? They need to know that stuff to be able to survive then we also start teaching them about America We teach them about Texas history We also start exposing them to a little bit of science and of course we have recreation throughout the day, too That's part of what they get and let me bring that piece to why that's important to healing Okay, when we're talking about healing a child, you're talking about emotions You're talking about the psychology of the child But guess what you're also talking about the physical well-being of the child too And so all of our children through HHS also get to see a medical doctor all of our children see a doctor also within 24 hours and we make available to them all of the care that they Need as well through our partnerships with medical doctors and with hospitals here in San Antonio So they get all that medical care to whatever is needed some of the stories Where you hear that children are coming across with all kind of ailments Since Saints PJs has been serving these children in May 2013 We got brought up as you saw on the numbers this morning. That's when we got started in May 2013 We've served just under two thousand children. Okay, in that short period of time The biggest issue that we've had to deal with and this is just our experience There's other organizations such as Baptist Child and Family Services Southwest Keys Another international education services who serve hundreds of kids at a time We have 82 beds on our campus and we're licensed also for 24 foster families. All right So the children that we have served the biggest medical issue that we've had to deal with chicken pox Okay, chicken pox. So there are other facilities that maybe deal with other issues Alright, but percentage-wise of the two thousand little under two thousand kids that we've had to deal with That's the major issue. Now when it comes to the psychological Issues of the child or the children that are from been a part of gangs or or cartels or some of those stories I can tell you had same PJs of the just under two thousand kids that we've served, okay We've had three incidents Where we had to be concerned of and where those children needed to go to a more secure safer environment And let me put that in context same PJs is not a lockdown facility Okay, it is it is we are of our 20-acre campus. Yes We have we have a fence all the way around us But we're not a locked facility 12-foot high fences bob wire around them where you have to have all these security clearances to come on our campus All right, and so that means yes when the federal field specialists with health and human services Truly identify a child who may be at risk because they they truly are maybe a risk to our population or others They are they are cared for in other settings But the majority of kids the majority of kids just from our experience. They don't fall into any of those kind of situations Okay, so let me bring it back to the thing about healing. How do you heal children? How do you how do you begin that as parents? How do you do that? Well, we all know the the the regular part of taking that child to a doctor when you take a child to a doctor You're counting on that specialist obviously figure out what the problem is and then they give you a plan of care Prescription of care to begin the healing of a child as we all know It's much more complicated when you're dealing with the emotional and psychological parts of a child But guess what the good news is we are starting to bring science into how we also care for children Because when you talk about emotions and in the psychology and the cognitive part of who we are as people Well, where does all that rest? Well, that all rests in the brain, right? And so we know today which parts of the brain are responsible for what type of functioning We also know today what part of the brain is developing at what age and we also know what typical Typical behavior looks like versus non-typical behavior And so we're able to work with these kids in the short period of time and put them in a great setting a great Environment that begins the healing right away our therapist our case managers are skilled and they're trained and not touching Some of those trigger points that you may think of in traditional mental health because we know we're going to have these kids For a short period of time and actually you may be doing more injustice if you start opening up some of those wounds and boom They're gone two weeks later going to a sponsor going to a family who has access to zero resources So what I would like to say in regards to what st. PJ's does is our legislators and HHS Looks at what more can we do for these kids that we ask that question How do we heal the children during the time that we have them? What kind of supports do they need? What kind of resources do they need? How do we bring the expertise of understanding human development and how? traumatic experiences Impacts the lifelong Implications of a person how does America how does our system bring the supports necessary so we can help these kids Since I know we had these children for a short period of time guess what I believe I believe truly that the children will remember Their experience at st. PJ's for the rest of their life That's a good thing because eventually they are going to forget the name of st. PJ's But they're going to remember their first experience here in America, and that's a good thing if the children stay with us Or should they go back? It's a good thing. They had a good experience in America when they were cared for when they first got here So that's what I would like to share with you all this morning And I thank you very much if if you want to know more about st. PJ's and actually we have a website Just go look up st. PJ home And you will find us and and I look forward to meeting you or talking to you more at some other time. Thank you