The Family Justice Center of Hillsborough County, a Safe Haven for Domestic Violence Victims

Posted Nov 25, 2009 by Al Mccray

Updated Nov 29, 2009 at 11:21 PM

The Family Justice Center of Hillsborough County, (FJCHC), in Tampa is like a Mall of service providers for Victims of Domestic Violence.
The FJCHC is a community-wide collaborative between public, private and non-profit organizations to provide comprehensive services to domestic violence victims and their families in a centralized location, or ‘one-stop-shop. The center has also been called a haven.
________________________

9309 North Florida Ave, Suite 109, Tampa FL 33612
Phone: (813) 935-2015   Fax (813)935-2019
_______________________

The Mission of The Center is to improve the lives of family violence victims through community collaboration and the provision of comprehensive services in a single location.

Nikki Daniels, the center’s executive director, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), has focused her career on working for troubled children and families.

Her work has always been with people affected by family violence, including child victims of sexual abuse, troubled teen girls and survivors of domestic violence. She also worked with people at the other end of the spectrum, providing therapy for juvenile and adult sex offenders, and batterers. During her work with individuals and families, she realized that people were often re-victimized by the very system where they sought help. In her leadership roles on various committees in the community, she began to work to improve community coordination. She is currently the Executive Director of the Family Justice Center of Hillsborough County.

Nikki Daniels

I met Nikki about two years ago. I have always been impressed by her leadership, sincerity and dedication at The Family Justice Center. Nikki is a very busy person and is always on the go. But she and all the various member organizations of the center are not that busy as not to provide individualized attention to each and every client.

Protecting client’s identity and confidentiality is a very high priority here. The center places a tremendous amount of expenses and efforts into the security of the facility.

Hillsborough County has the second highest domestic violence offense rate in Florida – 7,824 offenses last year as reported in the 2008 Florida Department of Law Enforcement Uniform Crime Data.  That is about 21 calls to law enforcement per day!

A victim of domestic violence must seek help from a number of agencies that are related, yet uncoordinated in their efforts.  Victims must often tell the story of unspeakable trauma several times to many different agencies, and the victim may become frustrated, and even stopped, by the hurdles of traveling to many locations and additional pain of revisiting the trauma many times.  The FJCHC provides a team of coordinated services to deliver immediate relief to victims and their families from the pain of domestic violence. The center even provides clothes for clients.

There are dozens of collaborators with the FJCHC. As you can see by the list, this center has just about every service and connection needed for a domestic violence victim.

Many are On-Site Partners / others are Off-Site Partners

ACCESS Florida Bay Area Legal Services Bethany’s Group Big Brothers/ Big Sisters Centre for Women  Child Abuse Council
Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County  Crisis Center of Tampa Bay Deaf Service Bureau Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office, Inc. (DACCO)  Family Advocacy Program/MacDill Air Force Base Gulfcoast Legal Services Hillsborough County Health & Social Services Department  Hillsborough County Department of Children’s Services Hispanic Services Council Life Builders Counseling Inc. Metropolitan Ministries Northside Mental Health Center The Spring of Tampa Bay, Inc.  Wheels of Success The Life Center AMEN Outreach
Word Ministries Worldwide APPLE Trauma Response Center for Children and Adults Catholic Charities Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, Inc. Children’s Justice Center Dress for SuccessEarly Childhood Council Eder Justice Center Even Start  Equality FloridaFlorida Department of Corrections Girl Scouts of Suncoast Council God’s Pedal Power Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services  Hillsborough County Criminal Justice Liaison Hillsborough County Domestic Violence Task Force  Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office   James & Jennifer Harrell Center for the Study of Family Violence at the University of South Florida College of Public Health National Family Justice Center Alliance Office of the Attorney General, State of Florida Plant City Police Department Positive Spin   Salvation Army Correctional Services Salvation Army Women’s Transitional Program School District of Hillsborough County  State Attorney’s Office, Hillsborough County, 13th Judicial District Tampa Police Department Temple Terrace Police Department   U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida   USF Advocacy Program University of South Florida Police Department  K 9 Community Assistance Network (K9 CAN)  Congregation Beth Shalom Christ the Servant Apostolic Catholic Church FL Council of Churches  
Floodgates Community Church Hispanic Jail Ministries   Metropolitan Community Church New Millennium Community Church  Turning Hearts Ministries

Major Funders

Board of County Commissioners of Hillsborough County Children’s Board of Hillsborough County Community Foundation of Tampa Bay
Debartolo Family Foundation Office on Violence Against Women Verizon Wireless Victims of Crime Act

The Family Justice Center has helped thousands of domestic violence over the years. Under the continued dynamic leadership of Nikki Daniels this center will continue to be a safe haven.