New Hanover Community Endowment Funds Launch of Wilmington’s Community Justice Center (CJC)
District Attorney’s Office together with Harrelson Center will open multi-disciplinary CJC creating new pathways to justice for those impacted by crime.
A strategic grant funded through the New Hanover Community Endowment will support the launch of a Community Justice Center at the Harrelson Center in partnership with the District Attorney’s Office. This Community Justice Center is founded on the evidence-based model and will create new pathways to achieve justice for victims of crime through integrated and comprehensive support services. The combined grants to both the District Attorney’s Office and the Harrelson Center totaled $5,017,896 and will fund the Community Justice Center’s first three years of operations. The CJC is projected to open in Summer 2024.
District Attorney Ben David said, “Simply put, we will fight crime by building community. By creating a Community Justice Center and housing it at the Harrelson Center, directly across the street from the New Hanover County Courthouse, we deliver immediate access to services and people who provide hope and healing for those impacted by crime, especially our youth.”
The Harrelson Center, Wilmington’s campus of humanitarian nonprofits, houses some 20 nonprofits on campus and closely collaborates with another 20 nonprofits off campus. Construction was recently completed in the building’s Vicki Dull Annex, transitioning what had been the New Hanover County Jail into 13,289 sq feet of ready office suites. “Our combination of available space, ideal location and community partners already on site, make the Harrelson Center a perfect location for this integrated center to support public health and safety,” said Harrelson Center Executive Director Meade Van Pelt. Plans are to address intimate partner, family violence and sexual assault cases on the fourth floor of the Vicki Dull Annex, with youth violence cases addressed on the fifth floor.
As stated in the grant application, benefits of Wilmington’s Community Justice Center include, but are not limited to:
- Convening a multi-disciplinary team of top professionals
- Providing a single-point access to services for victims and families that operates 24/7/365
- Embracing the police/prosecutor team approach for solving, proving and preventing crime
- Supporting victims as they work toward safety, stability, and self-sufficiency
- Providing mental health services and rehabilitation to reduce recidivism
- Improving community safety and ending the generational cycle of violence through early intervention, education, and prevention
For further information more immediately, talk given by DA Ben David at the Harrelson Center’s annual lunch on November 16th is recorded and available at www.newhanoverpenderda.com/five-arms-of-the-starfish.