Harbor House, a local women’s shelter for victims of domestic violence, will soon expand services for the majority of its residents. Surprisingly, and tragically, the intended services are not for women. Last week, Harbor House broke ground for a new children’s center that will serve as a day care and school for youth, who, on average, comprise 60 percent of those staying at the shelter.
“It’s very important for mothers to escape violence and get jobs to do what they need to do to become economically sustainable,” Harbor House CEO Carol Wick said. “This children’s center will allow moms to find work without worrying about their children.” The two-story, 10,667-square-foot center will be the largest of its kind in the country.
The building will include five classrooms, a children’s health clinic, a kitchen and playground. An essential feature will be a sophisticated security system, which is needed to protect residents from volatile family situations. Harbor House, Orange County’s only state-certified domestic-violence shelter, provides a safe haven, a 24-hour crisis hotline, counseling, emotional support, and legal advocacy for thousands of domestic-violence survivors and their children each year.
When completed in February of next year, the new center will accommodate 70 children. There is currently room for about 15 children in its existing two-room day-care center. Eventually, the new center will be a certified K-8 public school, also providing afterschool services for children up to 12th grade. “This is a huge step forward for us.
With the new center we will be able to offer what the children, and their mothers, need in care and education.” Harbor House offers temporary shelter for up to 100 women and children who are victims of domestic violence. Last year, the shelter provided a safe oasis to 700 clients, most staying at least six weeks. Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to go higher. Wick explained that a faltering economy only adds to stress in the home, which can lead to violence.
“When you have societal stressors — people losing homes, losing jobs — it’s likely to get worse,” Wick said. “During the hurricanes of four years ago there was a spike in domestic violence.” Already, Orange County is host to an unenviable level of domestic violence. Last year there were nearly 9,000 calls for domestic violence in Orange County. In addition, the number of incidents in the county involving domestic-violencerelated child abuse went up 13 percent in 2007 from the previous year.
There were 3,192 confirmed cases of child abuse due to family violence last year. “This cuts across all levels of society. It doesn’t just happen in poor neighborhoods, poor families,” she said. To make matters even worse, state and local agencies are in the process of cutting back on social services due to depleted revenues. The state Department of Children & Families, for example, is looking to cut 270 staff positions.
The ultimate cost of this violence, on families and society, is enormous. To help curb the human cost, the new children’s center will also be the focus of a partnership between Harbor House and the University of South Florida. USF will conduct research on the trauma of children who are exposed to family violence. Currently, children do not receive counseling in the same way as their parents, Wick said.
The goal is to provide better care and treatment for children, who are the “silent victims” of domestic violence, said Doug Elliott of Harbor House. The new children’s center will allow the kind of observation and experience necessary to develop new research, which is sorely lacking, said Wick, saying 1985 was the last time a major study looked at children in a domestic-violence shelter. Much has changed in the interim, and not for the better.
“The vast majority of people in prison came from where there was domestic violence,” Wick said. “How do we prevent this? How do we deal with this compound trauma?” With the outcomes learned from such a study, improved assessments and better treatments may be gained, she said, making Harbor House a national model for other shelters to emulate.
“USF will deal with trauma issues to develop quality assessments, then implement best practices for a more stable, safe environment,” she said. “We really feel that the opportunity is there for us to provide better services to children.” The community also can play a leading role in making sure this opportunity reaches its full potential.
The $1.2 million children’s center is the result of the generosity shown by a number of major donors, including KB Homes, which last year helped to build a new facility that allowed Harbor House to increase from 52 to 88 beds. “It is just wonderful that the community has embraced this project,” Wick said.
