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November 21, 2007

Application error costs Crisis Center chance at grant

By Raymond Billy

assistanteditor@jacksonville

progress.com

The Crisis Center of Anderson and Cherokee Counties was taken out of the running for a $50,000 grant because of an error on its application to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office.

Crisis Center, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of family violence, sexual assault and child abuse, “did not properly account for personnel and fringe costs,” said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman from the attorney general’s office. The mistake ended any chance Crisis Center had at obtaining the Other Victims Assistance Grant, or OVAG.

The applicant must ensure that at least 75 percent of the grant will go toward personnel and fringe costs for the two-year award, per filing guidelines. Exceptions can be granted for this rule, but one was not requested by the Crisis Center.

The Crisis Center only included 58.29 percent for fiscal year 2008 and 60.03 percent for fiscal year 2009.

Crisis Center Executive Director Donald Hammock said that in the past the attorney general’s office might have notified the center of the mistake on its application and allowed the organization to re-apply for the grant. That courtesy wasn’t extended this time.

“This year, the grants were so competitive and so many organizations applied for the grants that any type of discrepancy and you were automatically disqualified,” Hammock said.

The director said he harbors no anger towards the AG’s office for not giving Crisis Center a second chance.

“I don’t believe the Attorney General’s office was unfair to us. It’s something that we can apply for again and we’ll apply and hopefully we’ll get it,” Hammock said.

The grant would have helped the Crisis Center to once again have a third full-time counselor on staff along with its two part-time counselors. The center lost one of its counselors last month to a job at Stephen F. Austin State University.

“We won’t be able to see as many clients due to lack of another counselor,” Hammock said earlier this month.

However, Hammock said Tuesday financial support from the community may help the center to fill the counselor vacancy.

“We’re waiting to see how stable our funds are before we can replace that counseling position. The OVAG helped pay for some of that, but if our funds stay stable and we continue to get the community support coming in, we will be able to replace that counselor,” Hammock said.

In spite of the setbacks the Crisis Center has endured in the previous month — which includes learning it would not receive two other grants it applied for — Hammock continues to look on the bright side.

“The community has seen the need for us to be here and they have come aboard and started supporting us even more than they have in the past, and we’ve been very pleased with the response and it is helping us financially,” Hammock said.

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