TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - In the past week alone, three kids have gone missing near the Capital City Youth Services building on Roberts Avenue in Tallahassee.
The center's director says, this may seem like an alarming trend but for them, it's something that happens often.
"We provide services directly to kids that have a chronic history of running away," said Kevin Priest, President & CEO, Capital City Youth Services.
The organization provides shelter, counseling, and programming for at-risk children and families. So if the center is meant to help runaway youth, why is it so easy to run away from the center?
CCYS has a hands-off, open door policy. Priest says one important step to recovery is making sure children and teens feel comfortable and at ease.
"We recognize these kids have some difficulty going on in the background and we don't want to exasperate that by creating an environment that's difficult for them to remain in," said Priest. "We try to have more of a caring approach to the kids that are coming to us, try to identify the difficulties that they're actually having, what behaviors they're actually struggling with. Then, in addition to that, working with them and their family to come up with a plan that will help resolve the situation and keep them at their house."
