Father’s House operational with little supervision
Published:Monday | January 16, 2023 | 12:11 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE FATHER’S House transitional home in St James, which has been recently linked to the scandal-hit Embracing Orphans charity’s executive director, Carl Robanske, is currently still in operation, albeit with scant and inconsistent supervision of the female wards at the facility.
Earlier this week, a 93-page report from the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) indicated that Robanske, who founded the Father’s House facility in 2014, had sexually inappropriate interactions with female wards of the State.
When The Gleaner visited Father’s House on Friday, only a gardener and two young female wards were at the premises; there was no sign of a house mother or any other authority figure in sight. When asked where the house mother was, the wards replied that she was not at work for the day.
“I do not wish to talk about that,” one of the occupants said bluntly, when asked directly about Robanske and his general interactions at the facility.
There was additional visible resistance from the occupants to give more information on how to contact an authority figure, except to say that the telephone service at the facility was down and that the wards did not know the work schedule for the home’s supervisors.
The limited supervision at Father’s House stands in sharp contrast to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency’s (CPFSA) stated mandate to provide quality care for wards of children’s homes and places of safety.
In a subsequent interview with The Gleaner, Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison said that the CPFSA’s mandate requires it to provide clear monitoring of all state facilities that house children, even if the facilities are privately owned.
Beyond reproach
“Generally, we have residential childcare facilities, which covers children’s homes and places of safety, government-run villages which are run by the CPFSA, and private facilities which have to be licensed by the CPFSA. Even for those facilities that it does not actually run, the CPFSA would monitor the private facilities; and if you have such a responsibility, then it means that your own standards and principles have to be beyond reproach,” Gordon Harrison explained.
“I think that is one of the big contentions of this report, as this facility (Father’s House) that is the subject of the report is in fact a transitional home, which is operated by the CPFSA. And it is transitional simply because it is catering to a vulnerable population that would have grown up in state care, and is now growing up from childhood into adulthood. It has a mixed population, where you have girls who are over 18, and you have girls who have not yet turned 18, so technically, they are still children,” Gordon Harrison added.
In 2016, the authorities in the United States found Robanske guilty of professional misconduct and suspended his education licence due to sexually inappropriate behaviour.
According to the OCA’s report, the CPFSA learned of Robanske’s history in 2018, but only severed its connection with him in 2021.
CPFSA head Rosalee Gage-Grey has also come under fire for her agency’s handling of the Robanske controversy.
When asked if she was confident that the disciplinary process will bear fruit, Gordon Harrison said that she will wait to see what the result of the procedure will be.
“I have referred the matter to the honourable minister (Williams) who has portfolio responsibility for that executive agency…I do not get involved in that part of it at all, and I am not permitted to do so. I am always one that trusts process, and always hopes that once there is a pathway to follow, that pathway will be followed; so I do not want to pre-empt and condemn without more information,” said Gordon Harrison.