WILMINGTON — Though it received $5 million in start-up funds from the New Hanover Community Endowment last month, the district attorney’s community justice center is shooting for government funding in the long-term, according to DA Ben David.
READ MORE: DA’s $5M community justice center aims to improve efficiency and increase service access
“I don’t want to use this like a piggy bank and say to the endowment every other year, ‘Hey, give me more,’” David said in a Wednesday interview with Port City Daily.
In December, the endowment announced the DA’s office received $3.4 million and the Harrelson Center, where the CJC will be located on Fourth Street, received $1.5 million to staff and outfit the center.
Modeled after the family justice center concept pioneered by President George H. Bush as a national initiative, the goal is to colocate prosecutors, law enforcement and nonprofits to provide victims with easier access to the services they seek. This includes counseling services or obtaining a domestic violence protective order.
Like other family justice centers, the New Hanover County CJC is set to focus on “reluctant victims,” mainly women and children experiencing abuse. However, David said the CJC takes the model a step further, into what very few centers are doing, by targeting youth violence.
The idea to open a center in downtown Wilmington originated with the DA, but the Wilmington Police Department, New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, Novant Health, Legal Aid, the Carousel Center, the Rape Crisis Center at Coastal Horizons, and the Domestic Violence Shelter and Services are also involved.
Each entity is responsible for funding its operations within the center; the grant only covers eight new positions under the DA’s office, the center’s director and chief legal counsel positions, and facility upgrades and supplies — and those funds only account for the center’s first three years.
“We’re gonna put all the pieces in place; the people who are hired into these roles, they’ll have three years to show their mettle and my bet is that either New Hanover County or the state of North Carolina or both will say, ‘Of course we’ll pay the rent after that.’”
He estimated the space occupied at the Harrelson Center would ring up to $228,000 a year.
As for the new positions, they will be paid the same as state employees would, so current prosecutors in the DA’s office — some of whom will be moving to the center — will not see a difference in pay or benefits.
David told PCD the state is looking to add 150 prosecutors to its ranks, four or five of which are dedicated to New Hanover County. Those new positions could replace some of the eight being moved to the CJC and be permanently funded with the next state budget in two years.
“What I commit to this community is what we are putting in place right now will be self-sustaining by the end of three years and will be here 100 years from now,” David said.
None of the New Hanover County commissioners nor New Hanover County’s state representatives — Sen. Michael Lee, Rep. Deb Butler, Rep. Ted Davis, Rep. Charles Miller — responded to PCD’s request for comment on continued funding for the center.
Their answers will likely depend on the success of the center moving forward. The DA’s grant application cited many factors for measuring progress, including the analysis of crime reduction statistics, community surveys, satisfaction ratings, and service usage, plus an increase in community resilience and the 30 social determinants of health measured by Cape Fear Collective.
David said he expected the CJC to service a similar number of people as Guilford County’s center, which is one of nine in North Carolina.
PCD spoke with Guilford County’s Family Justice Center director Catherine Johnson last month, who said Guilford County sees around 13,000 people annually, sometimes 80 in a day. This is across two offices because the county is split into two judicial districts.
David, who also serves as Pender County’s DA, said the center would not turn away people from other counties, despite its location and the endowment’s decision to concentrate on funding only New Hanover projects.
Guilford County’s center was an inspiration for David, who took a tour of its family justice center in September. The next day, David was providing a keynote address at a conference on responding to community violence and met Casey Gwinn, founder of the family justice center movement. He told David New Hanover County already had the pieces in place for a center.
For years, domestic violence detectives have worked with the DA’s office to meet with victims and their advocates as part of the Family Violence Unit on the fifth floor of the courthouse. Put that together with The Harrelson Center, already a host to multiple nonprofits spanning a wide range of needs and conveniently open to tenants after a new renovation, and the impetus to create a community justice center formed.
However, at the time of the conference, the deadline for applications for the 2023 endowment grant cycle were due in two weeks.
David told PCD meeting with each partner agency multiple times to hash out details about how the center could work wasn’t feasible; he only met with the nonprofits once while showing them the Harrelson Center space. He still managed to gather letters of support from those proposed to be involved — such as the NHCSO, WPD, Carousel Center, Rape Crisis Center and Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, Inc. — as well as from New Hanover County Schools, New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington.
“[I said] ‘Listen, I just got a letter to show the collaborative nature of this and, sheriff, I’m not trying to hold you down to this, but if you’re telling me you can give me seven employees tonight, it’s a really good thing to put in a grant application,” David said, describing his conversation when meeting with Sheriff Ed McMahon.
The WPD is listed to have four dedicated officers and the NHCSO has eight. Add in the eight new DA positions, and 20 of the 25 office spaces in the CJC will be occupied by detectives or prosecutors. Novant has picked out its room and has committed to bringing necessary equipment to conduct and store rape kits, according to David.
The remaining space is available for the nonprofit partners. While David said he was “on fire” to start up the project, some of these partners were more lukewarm.
In December, PCD spoke with Mandy Houvouras, outreach director at the Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, who lauded the strong relationships that already exist among advocates and government agencies. Thus, she posited whether another dedicated space was necessary, especially when the center’s partners are currently clustered within miles of each other in downtown Wilmington.
Though a boon for collaboration among agencies, for nonprofits to partner with the center, it will mean dedicating a current employee to its space or hiring additional staff. If the center acts as intended by connecting more people to services, partners could also face an influx of workload.
Both of these logistical realities would require additional money. Nonprofits are funded through grants, fundraising and donations; while the CJC was chosen by the endowment, none of the three nonprofits — DVSS, the Carousel Center, the Rape Crisis Center — received grants in the 2023 cycle, though they applied.
“Folks who work in nonprofits, and do this work because we love it, find a way to really trust in our leadership and our board and in our community to come together,” Houvouras said last month. “But I think we cannot take for granted the actual costs of this work.”
David said Wednesday he understood those concerns.
“All I would say back to that is: Hopefully, this will highlight their great work and point out the need for their continued viability and that they should be getting it. I really liked that the endowment is apparently going to have more of a rolling cycle as opposed to a once-a-year deal. Because I think along the way, if they say, ‘Oh, wow, you know, Coastal Horizons not only offers drug treatment, but they’re doing a runaway shelter for youth and five of the kids that were the CJC are now over there. Let’s beef them up a little bit. Here’s $250,000.’”
David said he doesn’t expect the nonprofits to operate solely inside the center; rather, the center can act as a reception area or triage. From there, nonprofits can funnel clients to their basecamp locations for more services or follow-up visits. Partners can also pull out of CJC at any point.
The DA acknowledged the nonprofits have to “sing for their supper” and he said he relayed he wants them all to succeed. David said making the center rent-free is a step in that direction and he only requested the nonprofits be present, stating the CJC is not going to “fund a closet” or provide space for people who would not be there.
According to the grant application, the center is intended to operate 24/7, including magisterial services to grant protective orders. The DA clarified staff will not be present, sitting in an office, at all hours of the night. Instead, he was planning for organizations to somewhat stagger their work hours and operate via emergency calls and crisis lines for late-night needs.
David estimated the center would open in May or June, though he won’t remain in the DA seat much longer to oversee his office’s part. In November, David announced he would not seek reelection, nor another office, with his last day being Sept. 1.
He has, though, pledged to continue supporting the CJC. When asked if he planned to apply for the director position. He said no, stating he was sincere when he said he was taking time to forge his next path.
Though David was clear he isn’t leaving the DA’s office because of money, he also has financial needs. David has a $200,000 salary and could triple it by working in a private practice, but didn’t say that would be the route he would go.
“The positions [at the CJC] make less than my current salary and I don’t know if I can afford to do that alone,” David said.
The director will be chosen by the CJC’s inaugural board of directors, all of whom were named on Thursday:
- Chief District Judge Jay Corpening
- Linda Thompson, New Hanover County chief diversity officer
- Aswani Volety, UNCW chancellor
- LaChawn Smith, education consultant
- BJ Losch, Live Oak Bank president
- Michael McWhorter, CEO and co-founder of Mojotone
- Peyton Earey, nonprofit leader
- Lillian Smith, philanthropist
- Mike Ashcraft, senior pastor, Port City Community Church
- Judge James H. Faison
- Virginia Adams, retired nursing educator
- Laurie Whalin, COO, Novant Health Coastal Market
They were chosen by representatives of the Harrelson Center and the DA’s Office while the grant application was under review. The board represents leaders in the community across several sectors embodied in the DA’s Starfish Model. The model emphasizes the connections between government, the faith based community, schools, business and nonprofits to support the community.
The board will take over the governing responsibilities of the center, which means managing the hires and deciding on the center’s official name.
Though relinquishing authority over the center, David said he was still “deeply committed” to its success.
[Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated the Harrelson Center received $2.5 million from the endowment; that figure has been corrected to $1.5 million. PCD regrets the error.]
Reach out to Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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