Supervisors to Vote on Child-Abuse Center

The county Board of Supervisors is expected to approve today the selection of a county-owned Kearny Mesa site for the construction of a $15-million center for abused children.

The proposed center, sponsored by the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation, a nonprofit San Diego-based organization, would provide emergency shelter, counseling and prevention services to the county’s growing number of abused children.

Under a public-private partnership, the foundation is expected to raise funds to build the center. Once built, however, the center would be turned over to the county, which would then own and operate the facility.

“These kids are the most innocent victims of our society,” said Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who along with board Chairwoman Susan Golding formed the subcommittee that selected the proposed 10-acre site on Ruffin Road next to the County Operations Center.

The children “are so politically disenfranchised,” Bilbray said. “You don’t see them filling the county chambers and demanding money. We have a moral obligation to go out and help them because right now the services available to them are simply not acceptable.”

According to Jennifer Vanica, the foundation’s executive director, the county’s sole existing shelter--Hillcrest Receiving Home--no longer can accommodate the proliferating number of children who are victims of abuse. Although plans are still sketchy, the new center is expected to have about 130 beds and be in partial operation before 1993. When finished, it would replace the 20-bed Hillcrest facility.

Foundation statistics show that the number of referrals to the county’s child protective services department has escalated to 45,800 cases in 1987 from 11,500 cases in 1982--a 300% increase. Although growing public awareness and increased professional attempts to fight child-abuse accounts for much of the increase, Vanica says the rise in drug use, population growth and poverty have also contributed to the problem.

“Right now, not only are children being abused, they’re being put through the trauma of getting shuffled about because of the lack of coordinated services at a single site,” Vanica said. “This shelter will not only provide emergency shelter, but offer prevention services as well. Unless we have a comprehensive, long-term plan, all we’ll be doing is building more and more emergency shelters as the problem gets out of hand.”

Founded in 1981, the foundation has raised and contributed more than $1 million this fiscal year to countywide projects that address child abuse.

The board subcommittee selected the Ruffin Road site primarily because it is county-owned, and because of its size, central location and access to freeways and public transportation, said Richard Jacobsen, the county’s social services director.

The property’s characteristics also made the site attractive to the Sheriff’s Department, which has been evaluating it and three other sites for a new 2,750-bed jail.

“We were trying to advance the Ruffin Road site,” said Assistant Sheriff Ken Wigginton, who oversees the county’s jails. “But I don’t think there will be a conflict (with the supervisors) because we haven’t officially designated that site.”

Supervisor John MacDonald said a similar facility for abused children is being planned for San Marcos by Casa de Amparo, a nonprofit organization that also operates a shelter in Oceanside. Casa de Amparo has signed a $1-a-year lease with the city of San Marcos for a 12.5-acre site where it plans to build a 100-bed shelter.

“There has been concern that there will be a huge center in the metropolitan area and all the (abused) children, even those in North County, will be taken to the metropolitan facility,” said Gloria Valencia-Cothran, MacDonald’s administrative assistant. “Besides the fact that it (would) divert a North County law enforcement officer away from his duties to transport the children to the Ruffin Road site, it (would) be cruel to shuttle these traumatized children all across the county.”

Valencia-Cothran said that in 1988 more than 900 abused children in North County were taken to Hillcrest Receiving Home because there were no adequate facilities in the area.

Nearly two years ago, the foundation established a task force--including county representatives, social workers, health officials and law enforcement officers--to develop a plan to curb child-abuse cases, Vanica said. The task force concluded that a comprehensive care center was needed.

Recognizing the county’s fiscal crisis, the foundation proposed building the center through a public-private partnership. In April, the foundation’s plan was further endorsed when the county Grand Jury, which had been investigating the child-abuse problem, also recommended a public-private venture to build shelters.

Since then, the foundation has been organizing a campaign to raise $15 million for the center: $12 million for construction and $3 million for an endowment.

In September, the county Board of Supervisors voted to study the joint-venture proposal and began searching for a suitable site.