A crisis nursery could soon be in San Antonio and here's what that will provide:
San Antonio is working on a new way to help families in crisis.This comes as a recent report shows local family violence reports increased to more than 22,000.T San Antonio is considering introducing a crisis nursery program to help families in crisis, following a report showing local family violence reports have increased to over 22,000. The program will provide crisis assessment, emergency and follow-up services, as well as residential care. This comes after Councilmembers Rocha Garcia and Manny Pelaez petitioned for this program to be brought to San Antonio. Similar programs are already operating in other US cities. A preliminary assessment will be conducted in May to determine the cost of the program.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Photojournalist: Christopher Martinez, Amanda Henderson, https://www.facebook.com/news4sa in
San Antonio is working on a new way to help families in crisis.
This comes as a recent report shows local family violence reports increased to more than 22,000.
Thursday afternoon, the city's Crisis Nursery program took a big step forward to becoming reality.
San Antonio has long fought against the horrors of domestic violence.
"We know that San Antonio, unfortunately suffers from the highest levels of domestic violence of many other major cities," District Four Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia said.
This is why Councilmembers Rocha Garcia and Manny Pelaez teamed up to petition for a crisis nursery program to be brought to San Antonio.
"A crisis nursery is an immediate place to take your children so that you can deal with crisis at home," Pelaez, District Eight’s Councilman, said.
The program will provide crisis assessment, emergency and follow up services as well as residential care.
It will ensure children have a safe, free place to stay no matter if it's a last-minute childcare need or domestic violence situation.
"We've had 55 children since 2013. That are under the age of five that that that have unfortunately passed away way too soon. And this type of nursery is intended for that to prevent that situation,” Rocha Garcia said.
“Better late than never, it's something that I wish we had thought of a long, long time ago. But I'm enthused by the fact that we're getting support from almost all of the city council,” Pelaez said.
Similar programs are already up and running in cities across the United States.
Thursday afternoon a presentation on this program was given, which explained how everything would run if San Antonio opts in.
“For a number of years community stakeholders in San Antonio have really been identifying the need and advocating,” Assistant Director with the Department of Human Services Jessica Dovalina said.
Should the program be brought to the Alamo City, Pamela Allen with Eagle's Flight said it will make an immediate impact.
“When you look at the average age of the children that we bury being eight months, you bet I’m going to jump on board with this,” Allen said.
At Thursday's meeting council learned a preliminary assessment will be conducted.
Those results will come in May, which will give them an idea of cost analysis.
Both Pelaez and Rocha Garcia said they want this to be funded as soon as possible, which could include the upcoming city budget.
If you'd like to get involved with helping they said to call their offices.