House Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #1049 Marion County Children's Advocacy Center, Inc. - KIMBERLY'S COTTAGE
Requester:	Debra Gelinas		Organization:		Marion County Children's Advocacy Center, Inc.
Project Title:	Marion County Children's Advocacy Center, Inc. - KIMBERLY'S COTTAGE		Date Submitted:		01/25/2000 8:59:56 AM
District Member:	George Albright		Service Area:		County
Counties Affected:	Marion
Recipient:	Marion County Children's Advocacy Center, Inc.		Contact:		Debra Gelinas
	1515 East Silver Springs Blvd., Suite 114		Contact Phone:		(352) 369-2341
	Ocala 34470
Project Description:
Building new child and family friendly facility where local agency reps work as a multidisciplinary team to better coordinate child abuse investigations and treatment, while reducing trauma to victims of child abuse and neglect. Purpose of Project: The Marion County Children's Advocacy Center, Inc. has already formed a strong collaborative multidisciplinary team that reviews cases in an effort to do an extensive and thorough investigation, while planning for intensive and appropriate services for the child victim and family. The partnership agencies that are part of the team include Marion County Sheriff's Office, Ocala Police Department, State Attorney's Office, Department of Children & Families, Marion-Citrus Mental Health Ceners, and UF Child Protection Teams. One of the main tenants of the Children's Advocacy Centers is that children should be provided services in a child-friendly environment. Our criminal justice system was never designed for children, and so, rather than trying to make a police station a place children may feel confortable, our community has prioritized the re-engineering of the system to fit children, through the creation of Kimberly's Cottage. A local businessman has donated the land to build the Children's Advocacy Center facility and so far $74,000 has been raised to help with the construction costs. The supervision and pulling of permits for the construction project has been as well as the architectural plans that have been sealed. In order to truly make this a public-private partnership project, we are requesting a non-recurring construction funding amount of $200,000. We are aware of other communities throughout Florida that have received state funds through the legislature for construction of Children's Advocacy Centers. Please consider our request and invest in the lives of abused children.
Services Provided/Benefit to State:
Modeled after successful community programs that have been developed across the country to address and provide the health and mental health services for the unique needs of child victims and to help them through the criminal justice system in a sensitive and comprehensive way, utilizing the team approach with key agencies working together to strengthen intervention and save children from further abuse, while holding offenders accountable.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
Increase in successful prosecution, reduction in repeat child victims, and for the building itself, paid off loan, facility owned by the Children's Advocacy Center, Inc.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:				$200,000
Total cost of the project:		$400,000

Request has been made to fund:			Construction
Is there Local Government or Private match for this request?					Yes
	Cash Amount:	$100,000		In-Kind Amount:	$100,000
Was this project previously funded by the State?					No
Is future-year funding likely to be requested?					No
Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request?					No
Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget?					No
Is there a documented need for this project?					Yes
	Documentation:	"New Directions from the Field: Victim's Rights & Services for the 21st Century" Dept. of Justice
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?					Yes
	Hearing Body:	Marion County Legislative Delegation Hearings
	Meeting Date:	01/11/2000