{"id":109585,"date":"2026-02-10T00:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109585\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:33:06","slug":"philadelphias-youth-ombudsperson-could-soon-be-permanent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/109585\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia\u2019s youth ombudsperson could soon be permanent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Philadelphia\u2019s Office of the Youth Ombudsperson was established in 2022 under an <a href=\"http:\/\/phila.gov\/2022-11-30-mayor-signs-executive-order-to-create-office-of-the-youth-ombudsperson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">executive order signed by then-Mayor Jim Kenney<\/a>. On Monday, City Council advanced a measure that could make the office permanent via a change to the city\u2019s charter.\n<\/p>\n<p>The office is an independent agency set up to improve the safety and quality of services for youth in residential treatment facilities. It was established after <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/after-abuses-at-residential-facilities-philly-to-create-new-youth-ombudsperson-office\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a series of abusive incidents was brought to light<\/a>. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said the work is vital as the ombudsperson is an advocate for at-risk youth.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe young people in congregate care facilities are Philadelphia\u2019s most vulnerable children,\u201d Gauthier said during a committee hearing Monday. \u201cWe owe them a thorough, effective process for evaluating the quality of care we are providing, and the youth ombudsman\u2019s office is a critical part of meeting that obligation.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p>Gauthier went on to explain that there is abuse in the system. Without the ombudsperson, she said young people\u2019s rights cannot be defended as, in many cases, the abuse is hidden because of redacted reports that are commonplace in some residential placements.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mission of the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson is to promote the health, welfare, education, safety, well-being and re-entry of Philadelphia youth placed in juvenile justice, child welfare or behavioral health residential care facilities,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>She said her office\u2019s research found children in Pennsylvania residential facilities were <a href=\"https:\/\/hechingerreport.org\/new-report-underscores-education-problems-in-institutions-for-foster-youth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">physically maltreated 156 times (114 times by staff),<\/a> exposed to inappropriate sexual contact 73 times (39 times by staff), and suffered at least 43 incidents of verbal maltreatment by staff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/news\/report-pennsylvania-juvenile-abuse-dhs-glen-mills-wordsworth-philadelphia-20181213.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over an eight-year period in the 2010s<\/a>. The report revealed that 44% of the facilities reviewed had repeated violations of physical or sexual maltreatment of children.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[52518,52519,69,5648,71,70,6732],"class_list":["post-109585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-child-welfare-system","tag-juvenile-justice","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-city-council","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}