Ending Abuse—Improving Lives - Florida Department of Children ...

from violent homes;• Develops for use by advocates a basic curriculum onthe correlation between domestic violence and childmaltreatment, and the effects of domestic violence onchildren;• Evaluates the effectiveness of the curriculum;• Develops and uploads a web-based tutorial on thecurriculum to facilitate distance learning;• Evaluates the effectiveness of the tutorial; and• Assists each project area’s domestic violence taskforce in creating a children’s sub-committee in thedevelopment of a strategic plan for addressing childvictimization.STOP Violence Against Women GrantThe STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors)Violence Against Women formula grant funds are usedfor the training of law enforcement officers and prosecutorsto more effectively identify and respond to domesticviolence, sexual assault, and stalking; to develop domesticviolence units in police departments and prosecutors’offices; to enhance victim services; and to improve courtresponses to these crimes. Each year’s grant award mustallocate 25 percent to law enforcement; 25 percent toprosecution; five percent to state and local courts includingjuvenile courts; and 30 percent to nonprofit, nongovernmentalvictim services providers. This is a federalregulation that applies to the states. These allocationsmay not be redistributed or transferred to another area.The remainder of the funds may be spent at the discretionof the state to address the statutory program purposesdescribed previously.The department received $5,577,000 during FY 2005-2006and, in turn, awarded sub-grants to local programs. Theprograms included local police and sheriff departments,state attorneys’ offices, victim services agencies and theFlorida Supreme Court.Social Services Block GrantThe Department of Children and Families received a$2,000,000 federal grant from the US Department ofHealth and Human Services in 2005 for increased domesticviolence services to those counties in Florida hit hardest byHurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. The anticipatedincrease in services was based on experience in 1992in Dade County, Florida following Hurricane Andrew whenthe request for domestic violence center services increasedover 100 percent beginning several weeks after the passageof the storm, according to the local domestic violencecenters. The trend continued for several months prior tosubsiding. However, the demand for shelter services remainedapproximately 20 percent higher than pre-Andrewlevels for two subsequent years.During FY 2005-2006, the funds were used to provideservices to victims of domestic violence to promote a reductionin the incidents of domestic violence. Services providedinclude emergency shelter, shelter management services,child assessments, safety plans, 24-hour hotline assistance,counseling, information and referral services, temporaryhousing, transportation, day care services, emergency foodassistance, relocation expenses, community education, andoutreach services. Florida’s certified domestic violence centersand the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence were thekey players in providing these increased services to victims ofdomestic violence.Capital Improvement Grant ProgramMany of Florida’s 41 domestic violence centers continueto need renovations and repairs. Others are inadequateand beyond repair, making it necessary for those centersto build or purchase a new facility. Many of the sheltersbegan as residential homes, not designed for group living,let alone for providing privacy or special accommodationsfor children. In 2005, shelters ranged from small eight-bedfacilities to larger 102-bed facilities, averaging 37 beds pershelter and totaling 1,534 shelter beds available for victimsand their children. There has been an increase of 190 bedsin the last three years, due to centers building or renovatingfacilities using capital improvement grants.Outreach services, including group and individual counseling,for victims are provided in facilities placed strategically withinthe community. Larger outreach offices and transitionalhousing in these urban areas are becoming necessary dueto new and improved services being offered at the centers.More accessible outreach offices are greatly needed in therural counties, as the residents of those counties have little orno transportation to visit the urban outreach offices. Fourteenof the existing outreach facilities are in disrepair or not up tobuilding codes. Most are small buildings or offices that havebeen donated or leased.In addition, hundreds of victims continue to be shelteredby facilities, already over capacity, by sleeping on the shelterfloors and sofas or being placed in hotels. Florida’s populationis on the rise in leaps and bounds with an estimated increaseof approximately nine percent since 2000, according to theUS Census Bureau. In some areas of the state, the reportedincrease was more than 15 percent. Victims and their familiesare staying in the shelters for longer periods of time than48 Domestic Violence Annual Report 2005-2006