Harbor House of Central Florida (HH), Orange County’s only state-certified domestic violence center, has expanded its services to include targeted outreach in Pine Hills and Bithlo. This now brings the organization’s service sites to 13 throughout Orange County.
The organization said, nearly $250,000 in new funds will be received for specific outreach services in both communities to help Harbor House and its partners end domestic violence.
Harbor House works closely with the Department of Children and Families and their Child Protective Investigators (CPI).
According to Bill D’Aiuto, regional managing director of DCF Central Florida region, there were 5,108 investigations regarding family violence in Orange County between January 2013 and July 2014. Of those cases, 257 resulted in the removal of children.
In the latter part of 2013, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacob tasked Harbor House to penetrate the vulnerable Haitian community, which has the highest number of both domestic abuse and child abuse reports in Orange County.
“Harbor House appreciates Orange County’s support of our recent funding of a homicide prevention advocate and allowing our staff to be housed at locations, so we can be in the community where survivors need us the most,” said Carol Wick, CEO of Harbor House of Central Florida. “They’ve seen the impact we’ve been able to make and will continue to escalate, to help make this community a safer place for everyone to live. Harbor House is more than a shelter; and getting into these drastically underserved areas will help us stem the tide of domestic violence – together.”
If you or anyone you know might be experiencing domestic abuse, call the 24-hour crisis hotline at (407) 886-2856 or 800-500-1119 (Florida).
