Posted on Tue, Feb. 09, 2010

The Child Advocacy Center may have found the money to stay open another year to help abused children.

Sedgwick County commissioners on Wednesday will consider giving the center $120,000.

The city also plans to give $50,000, said Wichita Police Deputy Chief Tom Stolz,.

The center, which helps victims of physical and sexual abuse and Internet crimes, as well as runaways, had faced the possibility of closing as grant money dried up.

Diana Schunn, executive director, now is cautiously optimistic that won't have to happen.

"I'm very hopeful. From every indication, it sounds like there's support," she said.

When the center opened in 2008, it planned to operate on grant funding and private donations.

"We need to find a way to sustain ourselves through grant funding or private dollars," Stolz said.

The money from the city and county will give the center time to figure out how to do that, he said.

County staff earlier had recommended giving the center $835,000 to help it move to a bigger space and get through the year. Commissioners instead voted 4 to 1 — with Tim Norton voting against — to give the center $334,000 if the city kicked in $334,000 and the state $167,000.

The state already had agreed to provide $112,000 and the city has its own budget woes, so that scenario, proposed by Commissioner Gwen Welshimer, seemed unlikely.

The new amounts, if approved, won't be enough to move the center to Twin Lakes at 21st and Amidon. But they should allow the center to operate for another year in its current location.

Commissioner Dave Unruh said he plans to vote for the funding.

"I think it's a valuable proponent of providing public safety and human services in the community," he said of the center. "I'm hoping other commissioners now will, with this kind of partnership, be able to go forward."

Welshimer said she would support giving the center $120,000.

"This is much less, that's fine," she said Monday.

Norton said he also would support the effort. He said he voted against the previous proposal because he thought the county should have stepped up then and not made funding contingent upon the city and state participating.

"This just gets them along for a year," Norton said of the $120,000. "It lets us have a chance to have a conversation about what the long-term situation needs to look like."

Schunn said the center will continue to pursue fundraising to be able to move to a larger office.

"But we're feeling better about the opportunities that this gives us," she said.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.