Senate Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #1480 Gulf Coasts Kid's House
Requester:	Marci Goodman		Organization:		Gulf Coast Kids House
Project Title:	Gulf Coasts Kid's House		Date Submitted:		01/28/2000 12:37:54 PM
District Member:	W.D. Childers		Service Area:		Neighborhood/Community
Counties Affected:	Bay, Escambia, Gadsden, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton, Washington
Recipient:	Gulf Coast Kids House		Contact:		Marci Goodman
	P. O. Box 12803		Contact Phone:		(850) 395-3750
	Pensacola 32575
Project Description:
The Gulf Coast Kid?s House Children?s Advocacy Center and Child Abuse Prevention Center will be a child-focused facility-based program located in Escambia County, serving the needs of many of our counties in Florida. This will be one of only 150 Children?s Advocacy Centers currently in existence in the US. The goal of this center is to bring together under one roof the agencies associated with the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases. Escambia county alone has over 3,500 confirmed child sexual abuse cases annually. The great number of these are against children under the age of 9. The current system does not protect these children from further victimization and in fact can increase the anxiety level and victimization on the child. Once the child has made the allegations of abuse, the child is physically examined by a doctor or nurse in a significantly invasive procedure in a sterile room. Then the child is questioned by no less than 5-10 different people from different agencies. The child is shuttled and questioned numerous times child protection team workers, children and families personnel, law enforcement, assistant state attorneys and defense attorneys. The sheer number of times a young child is questioned and the expertise, or lack thereof, of the interrogator will necessarily cause minor discrepancies in the victim?s testimony and thus, the successful prosecution and conviction rate is low throughout the state of Florida, leaving the victim unsatisfied and a pedophile free on the street to find other victims. The Gulf Coast Kids House will be a million dollar child friendly facility which will provide the offices for the Child Protection Team, State Attorney?s Office, Law Enforcement, Counseling Services and Prevention Services. All have agreed to house the child abuse staff in this building to form a team approach. This will effectively serve to increase awareness of child abuse, assist families in preventing child abuse and increase the arrest rate and convictions of sexual offenders. The team would meet on all cases of sexual child abuse for the entire region with professionals assigned to the situation. Interviews would be child friendly with all concerned parties behind a one way mirror and only 1 interviewer. This will enable the child to feel safe and unthreatened and not to be revictimized by telling the story numerous times to numerous strangers. The facility will house medical facilities to further ensure the comfort level of the child. The team of professionals will also meet on ?at-risk? cases in order to assist the agencies with preventing child abuse. Prevention services and training will be provided through this facility in order to increase awareness for the public and to assist the public with prevention of child sexual abuse.
Services Provided/Benefit to State:
Services provided: Child Protection Team services pursuant to FL Statutes; Prevention services to include: Mother-to-Mother; counseling for parents; classes for parent training; training facility for community and internal presentations; deposition rooms for child abuse cases, State Attorney?s Offices, Law Enforcement Offices; Children and Family Offices and their staff for specialized investigation units, counseling services for child victims and parents/guardians; medical facilities for initial sexual abuse exam; interview rooms for each agency; interview room with specialized recording equipment for initial child interview; 24 hour call service. Benefit to the state: Increase in successful prosecution for child sexual abuse cases so that the perpetrators are not allowed to go free and find other victims; increase in arrest rate for child abusers, less trauma for victim and immediate counseling in order to calm the child and ensure that the victim does not become a perpetrator in the future; increased awareness of child sexual abuse and prevention services, team approach in a child-friendly atmosphere so as to solidify agency cooperation which will lesson the chance of cases falling through the cracks.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
Increase in arrest rates for child sexual abuse/molestation, Increase in successful prosecutions for child sexual abuse.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:				$500,000
Total cost of the project:		$1,000,000

Request has been made to fund:			Construction
Is there Local Government or Private match for this request?					Yes
	Cash Amount:	$500,000		In-Kind Amount:	$210,000
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?					Unknown
Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget?					Unknown
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:	Escambia County Commissioners
	Meeting Date:	11/23/1999