Children’s Advocacy Center needs help replacing grant money feds cut in unexpected move

The Children’s Advocacy Center in Port St. Lucie, which has helped more than 760 boys and girls victimized by sexual or physical abuse – or both - is scrambling to fill a $300,000 hole in next year’s budget created by an unexpected cut in federal funding, center officials said.

The bad news came in a letter from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office, which distributes grant money provided by the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, created by Congress in 1984 in part to help pay for state and local programs that assist victims of crime.

“We learned that one of our major funding sources – the Victims of Crimes Act – is cutting our award this year by 67%,” said Debbie Butler, president of Guardians for New Futures, a nonprofit that serves abused youth and the driving force behind creating the center, which opened in July 2022.

“This was a huge blow to us,” she said.

Last year when the center opened, Butler predicted they would assist about 1,300 children a year from the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee County.

The surprise financial hit, she said, means they’re on a quest to find emergency gap funding to avoid having to limit or cut services offered to help abused and traumatized children.

Located at the old PGA Golf Learning Center site, on St. Lucie West Boulevard just off Interstate 95, the facility brought under one roof — for the first time locally — specially trained professionals who evaluate and investigate cases of child neglect and abuse and help children and their families.

Before the center opened, children had to visit six or eight different places after the abuse to receive needed resources, Butler said.

Agencies with staff at the 9,000-square-foot site include Florida’s Department of Children and Families, Hibiscus Children’s Center and victim advocates with the State Attorney’s Office. There’s also medical and office space for nurses, police officials and prosecutors.

Less federal money leaves fewer dollars for state grants

The Children’s Advocacy Center isn’t the only Florida nonprofit that will be left short on cash because of VOCA grant cuts, according to the Aug. 28 letter to Butler from Chief Deputy Attorney General John M. Guard.

He warned that most VOCA grant recipients will get less money in the 2023-2024 funding cycle than the year before.

“The amount received by … Florida significantly decreased,” Guard wrote, “which in turn results in less funding available to allocate to agencies throughout the state.”

The Children’s Advocacy Center was awarded $71,799 - significantly less than the $215,000 VOCA grant received in the 2022 funding cycle, Butler noted.

In the letter, Guard explained that the reduced grant was calculated based on “a projection” of what the center spent during 2022, not on the total amount awarded that year.

And that’s the problem, Butler said, because the center didn’t start accepting children until July 2022, so for half a year they hadn’t spent much of their $215,000 grant.

“The months that (state officials) were calculating our yearly award on is going to leave us with like a $300,000 deficit, or gap that we need to fill,” Butler said.

When she alerted Guard that their grant wasn’t calculated accurately, Butler was told there’s “no avenue” for a review.

“So, pretty much, ‘tough,’” she said.

State plea for more federal funding

Guard’s letter further warned that the Justice Department will continue to cut back on VOCA grant funding.

“These additional, substantial reductions will require the (Florida) Attorney General to reduce future year grant awards,” the letter stated, which urged VOCA recipients “to attempt to secure funding from other sources.”

Since 2018, funding for VOCA grants dipped from $3.5 billion to about $1.2 billion, federal records show.

That follows a drop in the amount of fines and fees collected from federal criminal fines, forfeited bail bonds, penalties, and special assessments collected by U.S. Attorneys' Offices.

On Nov. 30, Moody wrote to congressional leaders that cuts to the Crime Victim Fund has left the state with $37 million less to distribute this year and $77 million less to allocate for next year compared to 2022.

She demanded that Congress stop diverting VOCA money and pass the Fairness for Crime Victims Act to ensure states can “adequately” provide resources to crime victims.

“These decreases have caused and will cause Florida to make tough choices in the granting of funds,” wrote Moody in a letter also sent to Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.

Chasing new dollars

Butler though, isn’t waiting for Congress to act. They need a cash infusion now, she said, to cover the center’s 2024 operating budget of $650,000

“We can't depend on the federal government to help us help our kids,” Butler said. “Our focus needs to be on the little ones.”

Butler and the center’s executive director Stephanie Castellanos are looking to Gov. Ron DeSantis, state lawmakers, county governments and local municipalities for emergency gap funding and longer-term financial help.

“I’m starting those conversations,” Butler said in early December.

State Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, said she’s “deeply concerned” about the financial impact of VOCA funding cuts.

“In collaboration with my colleagues, I will work to push for additional funding in their budget for the Children's Advocacy Center,” Trabulsy said via email. “It is my profound hope that Florida places a major emphasis on this issue.”

Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, who with Trabulsy secured $1.3 million from the state to build the center, said she’s spoken with state Sen. Jennifer Bradley R- Fleming Island, who is chair of the Appropriations Criminal and Civil Justice committee.

“I am hopeful that we will be able to work on providing some additional funds, but we are just beginning the budget process,” she said via email. “This will be a priority for me.”

Meanwhile, Butler wants state officials to commit to funding all of Florida’s Children’s Advocacy Centers and abolish the need to rely on federal money to keep the doors open.

“We have to do something,” she said. “The most vulnerable of the children are coming through our doors and … this can change the trajectory of their lives.”

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Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Feds funding cut to Children's Advocacy Center leaves hole in budget