Agency for Abused Children Loses Funds : Services: Program aiding sexually molested children has lost half of its funding and is appealing to the state for help.

Foothill Family Service, a 64-year-old agency that operates a counseling program for sexually abused children in the San Gabriel Valley, has lost $120,000 in state-awarded money--roughly half the program’s yearly funding. Unless an appeal Tuesday in Sacramento is successful, the agency will be forced to scale back its program of aid to nearly 1,000 abused children annually, Foothill Executive Director David Eisenberg said.

That means that sexually molested children in the San Gabriel Valley, who now face delays of up to two months before being seen by a counselor, could wait even longer before treatment, Eisenberg said. In addition, the number of children and their parents counseled annually could be reduced.

“These are kids and families in crisis, as if they were in an emergency room from a car accident,” Eisenberg said. “Imagine a rape victim not being able to get psychological support for months. You have to remember we’re talking about little kids who have been raped.”

Foothill is one of the few agencies in the county and the only one in the San Gabriel Valley that specializes in counseling sexually abused children, Eisenberg said. Other local agencies offer such counseling, but do not make it a specialty, he said.

For help in a similarly specialized setting, families must trek to San Fernando Child Guidance in the San Fernando Valley, Children’s Institute International in Los Angeles, Children’s Treatment Services in Santa Monica or the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center in Rancho Mirage, he said.

The Pasadena center’s loss of funds comes at a time when demand for services is rising, Eisenberg said, adding, “We’ve had 10 cases referred in the last 10 work days. It’s crazy.”

For decades, the nonprofit agency at 118 S. Oak Knoll Ave. in Pasadena has provided basic “meat and potatoes” psychotherapy and family counseling, Eisenberg said. More than 3,500 clients were seen last year by 25 staff members and 20 contract clinicians, he said.

But Foothill’s sexual abuse program is unique because most other agencies in the San Gabriel Valley deal with physically abused and neglected children, Eisenberg said. The Pasadena agency concentrates on sexually abused children.

State funding for that program was lost when a three-year grant from the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning was not renewed.

Foothill was one of a dozen agencies first awarded money in 1987 when the state received federal money under the federal Victims of Crime Act. When the three-year grants came up for renewal this year, about 40 agencies statewide competed for $1.2 million in federal funds, twice the number that had applied previously, said Greg Alterton, a spokesman for the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

In the stiffer competition, Foothill and two other agencies in Los Angeles County that had previously received funds found themselves empty handed.

“It’s not like they got an F,” Alterton said of Foothill. “They would have gotten a passing grade. Had we had enough money, they would have gotten funded.”

Because the funds come from the federal government, the grants are not affected by the state budget debate.

If Tuesday’s appeal to the state fails, Eisenberg said he will ask the Pasadena Board of Directors for one year’s funding. The board last week referred the request to the city Finance Committee.

Foothill will also apply to foundations to establish an endowment that will ensure ongoing operation of the program, Eisenberg said.

“I see taking care of victimized children as about as basic as police services,” Eisenberg said.

According to 1988 figures from the Department of Social Services, more than 19,000 children in the San Gabriel Valley were physically abused that year and another 3,000 sexually abused, Eisenberg said.

Foothill counseled 966 sexually abused children last year, enabling them to tell about their abuse in a safe environment, to recover from post-traumatic stress and to re-establish basic trust, Eisenberg said.

“Some kids come in suicidal, others are profoundly depressed, and others are agitated and acting out sexually, masturbating and fondling other kids,” he said.

After 16 weeks to three years of counseling, such children can be transformed, said Foothill clinical social worker Pat Avery. “They blossom. We have to warn their parents that they have a new, happy, talking child.”