Saskatoon program's new app aims to reduce number of kids reported missing while in care

A prominent youth program in Saskatoon has launched a new app in hopes of reducing the number of young people who are reported as missing while in government care. 

Egadz launched the Missing Youth Saskatchewan app Tuesday with the help of nearly $50,000 from the Saskatchewan government.

The app will roll out with Saskatoon Police and other local agencies first, before launching to the rest of the province in the coming months, according to a news release from the province. 

Egadz has an existing Operation Runaway risk assessment tool, so the app is building on that, the release said. That tool helps youth workers assess the risk level if a young person doesn't come home as scheduled.  

"It was developed using input from the Egadz youth committee and is informed by their lived experiences with being in care. If the app guides the worker to report the young person missing, with a click of a button the worker can then easily share all relevant information with their local police services."

Egadz executive director Don Meikle told reporters Tuesday he was excited about the launch. 

"When you've been doing this job as long as I have and you get people talking about missing youth, and the high, high numbers when they're actually really not missing, for me it's respectful in the way that we're only going to report kids that are legitimately missing and at high risk," he said. 

"It allows police to put the resources where they need to be, instead of chasing their tail all the time."

Some factors that may create an increased safety risk for a young person include mental illness or drug use, according to the province.

Social problem

Saskatoon Police Deputy Chief Randy Huisman said it's a goal of the force to reduce the number of chronic runaways.

"In saying that, we know that police cannot tackle this problem alone. Issues surrounding why youth are running are very complex," he said.

"And it's not just a police problem, but it's a social problem. The saying 'it takes a community to raise a child' is true, but what's also true is it's going to take a community to tackle this issue."

Since the implementation of Egadz's initial risk assessment tool, the number of youth reported missing from its homes has steadily declined, according to a news release. 

Egadz staff performed 1,500 risk assessments last year, but only 235 of those led to filing a missing persons report with police, the release said.