Child victim advocates in Bay County are requesting extra help meeting an increased need for services during the pandemic.
“This is the first time that we’ve ever had a waitlist for children who've been sexually abused who need therapy,” said Lori Allen, executive director for the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, at a recent state legislative delegation hearing in Bay County. Allen has been at the center for more than a decade.
The center has requested help from state lawmakers. Its legislative priorities include a releasing $100 million in federal dollars awarded to the state last year to support the Florida Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers, restoring a recent cut in state funding for the centers and amending legislation that requires parental consent for medical pelvic examinations given to minors.
The upcoming legislative session officially begins on March 2 — the bill filing deadline.
The statewide network of advocacy centers consists of 30 organizations across that state that provide therapy, legal advocacy, medical examinations and a safe space for children who’ve been abused, neglected or both. The centers share about $3.5 million in state funding, with each receiving about $100,000. Other funding sources include federal aid and private donations.
But that hasn’t been enough to meet the growing need for services, Allen explained to state legislators. During the pandemic, the center has seen a spike in child abuse cases in the community. The number of children in need of victim services in 2020 was up from the previous year, Allen explained.
Last spring, calls to the Florida Abuse Hotline were down by 40 percent. But that figure doesn’t reflect the increased need for victims services throughout the pandemic, Allen said. “Despite the fact that we saw such a decrease during that time due to isolation, we have actually seen more individuals.”
Allen says the legislative budget committee held back about $100 million of more than $200 million awarded to the state by the Department of Justice in the form of a grant under the federal Victims of Crime Act. Those dollars must be spent by Oct. 1. “If they’re not spent, they have to go back to the federal government,” Allen explained.
Allen told lawmakers the center is facing possible staff cuts after they were denied a share of the federal dollars they were promised last year when state lawmakers refused to authorize spending all of the grant money.
The staff is already “overwhelmed,” Allen said. “Some of our victim advocates are carrying eighty cases each, and it’s just not manageable,” Allen said. “And it’s not just our agency that’s impacted. These grants fund victims’ advocates at our sheriff’s office, at our state attorney’s office.”
Last year, the statewide network of Children’s Advocacy Centers lost $500,000 in non-recurring funds due to state budget cuts. In Panama City, this cost victims services $30,000. Allen said she hopes this funding is restored in the upcoming session.
To save money, the center has put in place some cost-saving measures of its own.
“We closed offices. We move people to hoteling, working from home,” sad Lori Allen, executive director of the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center. “We started cleaning our own offices — I’m a janitor part-time. We’ve done everything so we don’t have to cut positions because children and families need us.”
Last week, state Sen. George Gainer (R-Panama City), along with state Reps. Brad Drake (R-Eucheeanna) and Jay Trumbull (R-Panama City), held a public hearing in-person at the Bay County Courthouse, where they made no promises related to spending, but offered to fight to get the community’s needs met.
“We’ve been there long enough now that we can get things done,” said Gainer, who was first elected to the legislature in 2016. “We’re going to try. We just had a little bit more money than we’re having to work with now.”
State lawmakers are facing a possible $2 billion deficit in next year’s budget.
“Since Northwest Florida didn’t get a whole lot from the rest of the state to begin with for many, many years, I think we can adjust probably better than anyone else.”
