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Hibiscus Children's Center Crisis Nursery Program Children's Services Advisory Conunittee B. PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT Entire Section B not to exceed one page) 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? The abuse, neglect, or abandonment of children. Sadly, the devastating effects of child abuse go far beyond its immediate physical and emotional impact on the child. The impact permeates throughout the child' s entire life cycle. Abused children show higher rates of school delinquency and failure, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, early entry into the criminal justice system, and domestic violence. b) Who has the need? Families and children, birth to 17, who are at risk of maltreatment due to a crisis and who need a wide array of intervention and support services in order to keep the family intact and the children safe. c) Where do they live? Services are provided to children and families in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties. The program encompasses all socio-economic boundaries since families of every ethnicity, community, and social class can experience a crisis that places their family at risk. d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. ❖ According to the Annie Casey Foundation, 8 out of every 1 ,000 children will at some point enter the child welfare system. (Kids Count Databook 2004) ❖ Florida ranks 34th in the nation in terms of children' s issues (Kids Count Databook 2004) ❖ Florida has a higher rate than the national average of children living in poverty, low birth weight infants, births to unwed mothers, divorce rate, teen birth rate, school dropout rate, and child death rate. (Florida Needs Assessment 2003/2004) 8• 1 ,996 children under the supervision of DCF, 323 of these children are from Indian River County. (UFF Report to Alliance, January 2006) ❖ According to the Florida' s Children Needs Assessment 2003/2004, Indian River County ranked below the state average in the following categories a percentage of kindergarten children ready to learn, percentage of children on waiting list for subsidized childcare, substance exposed newborns rate, percent of two-parent households and percent of adults using alcohol. Since its inception in 1994, Crisis Nursery has served over 14,411 children and families, with an average success rate of 98%. 2. a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. The Crisis Nursery program is a nationally recognized primary prevention program for families who seek help voluntarily helping to prevent the need to enter into the child welfare system. As a program, Crisis Nursery fills a unique void in the Treasure Coast community of providers. As of this writing there are no other identified programs offering the specific services of primary prevention offered through this very successful program of primary prevention services. Crisis Nursery does augment, supplement and/or compliment other community programs such as Strengthening Families, Healthy Families, Healthy Start, etc . For example, the Crisis Nursery program provides respite services for Healthy Families case management and collaborates in St. Lucie County with CASTLE, New Horizons, and Family Preservation with each program providing a unique array services that compliment and meet identified family needs. 4