House Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #538 Gulf Coast Marine Institute
Requester:	Mike Mann		Organization:		Gulf Coast Marine Institute
Project Title:	Gulf Coast Marine Institute		Date Submitted:		01/18/2000 1:18:03 PM
District Member:	Mark Ogles		Service Area:		Regional
Counties Affected:	Manatee, Sarasota
Recipient:	Gulf Coast Marine Institute		Contact:		Amy Merrill
	301 7th St. E.		Contact Phone:		(941) 746-6767
	Bradenton 34208
Project Description:
The Gulf Coast Marine Institiute (GCMI) is a non-profit organization that serves its community by providing education and rehabilitation services to delinquent youth as well as support to their families. The boys and girls in the program are between fourteen and seventeen years of age and are referred by the Department of Juvenile Justice or the Public schools of Manatee County. The Gulf Coast Marine Institue's main goal is to decrease the re-offense rate (recidivism) of the students attending the program and to assist them in becoming responsible and productive citizens. This goal is accomplished through four main strategies: 1. Students are motivated to commit themselves to become accountable for their own behavior and responsible for their own futures. 2. Students are taught how to make responsible decisions and how to delay personal gratification in order to achieve individual goals and/or honor community values. 3. Students are provided opportunities to practice citizenship through a wide variety of community service projects. 4. GCMI assists in helping students be successful after program completion by providing quality education, vocational training and post-program placements. These combined strategies have created tremendous success. After thirteen years of serving Manatee and Sarasota counties, over seventy-five percent of Gulf Coast Marine Institute's graduates have remained crime-free. The line item will fund a new facility for the program. Although GCMI is providing these critical services, their current facilities have been outgrown and need to be updraded. Current classroom sizes average nine feet by twenty-one feet and do not allow room for basic upgrades such as computer workstations. Additionally, GCMI requires new facilities for continued growth and expansion. For instance, in October 1998, the Manatee County School Board requested ten additional slots for students in need of services. Unfortunately, GCMI could not help them as the facility was filled to maximum capacity. The new facility will be larger and better equipped to provide services targeted at meeting public and program goals.
Services Provided/Benefit to State:
This line item will serve the following state public purposes: 1. Protecting the public safety through the rehabilitation of the state's delinquent youth and decreasing the rate of juvenile re-offense, and... 2. Preventing juvenile crime among students targeted as having serious behavior issues in the public school system such as violent behavior, bringing weapons to school, committing criminal acts on compus, gang-related misbehavior and the like. 3. Providing educational alternatives that help ensure students graduate from high school or receive a GED/HSCT according to state approved criteria. Criminal behavior among the state's youth has been a critical issue of ongoing concern among Florida's constituency. The Gulf Coast Marine Institute has a proven track record of being able to serve the community successfully in these areas. This line item will seve to provide both increased quality of service and an increase in the quantity of cllients seved by the Gulf Coast Marine Institute. Therefore, the funds requested for a new facility specifically serve the public of the state of Florida by: 1. Increaseing the number of students who can be served at a program which has proven successful in decreasing the recidivism of its Department of Juvenile Justice referrals and reducing the incidence of criminal offense by its Manatee County School Board referral, and... 2. Further improving outcomes among program graduates by providing a facility that can support further programmatic growth such as computer/internet technology in classrooms, increased vocational training options and the like. The goal is to further decrease recidivism among program graduates and to increase outcomes associated with responsible citizenship such as the increased likelihood of high school graduation, post-secondary education and /or post-secondary vocational training.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
The Gulf Coast Marine Institute provides for performance standards and outcome measures for the program. These standards and measures include recidivism, truancy, job placement and the like. The actual line item, however, is for a facility and does not lend itself to the performance standards/outcome measures format.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:				$1,100,000
Total cost of the project:		$1,100,000

Request has been made to fund:			Construction
Is there Local Government or Private match for this request?				Unknown
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?				Unknown
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?				Yes
	Hearing Body:	Manatee County Legislative Delegation Hearing
	Meeting Date:	09/30/1999