Groundbreaking for Family Justice Center

Maria’s husband abused her - physically and verbally. She could not leave the relationship because he controlled all of the couple’s money, and each day, she worried whether he would kill her.
However, she was lucky enough to get out, and when asked to speak about her personal experience with domestic violence at the groundbreaking of Queens’ new Family Justice Center, Maria agreed, so that she could tell women like herself where they could find help.
Expected to completed in the spring of 2008, the Center will provide comprehensive multilingual services to domestic violence victims and their children. Legal representation for immigration, housing and Family Court issues will be available, as will on-site childcare and activities for kids.
Once it is open, victims will be able to visit the Center, located at the corner of 126th Street and 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens, and get help filing police and probation reports, to seek counseling and support groups, and to report domestic violence crimes.
So far, the city has raised over $500,000 from private donors, and Borough President Helen Marshall is expected to allocate funds to the $5 million project as well. The city will cover the remaining costs.
The single-story building, located nearby to Queens County Criminal Courthouse and Queens Borough Hall, will house a training room, children’s play area, and separate space for nonprofit advocate groups like the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation.
“We are going to do everything we can to get these families out of danger so they can start healing and rebuilding their lives,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the opening.
Bloomberg touted the Center as “an innovative approach to providing domestic violence services” because many aspects of support are located in the same facility.
Since 2002, New York City has been developing a new strategy to help victims of domestic violence and more quickly prosecute batterers. Domestic violence calls are digitized so that they are ready to be used in court sooner, victims can more easily apply for public housing, and one-third more emergency beds have been added to city homeless shelters.
Although Bloomberg said that these efforts have helped to lower the number of domestic violence crimes - including murder, rape, and felony assault - by 20 percent citywide, there are still a large number of victims. Last year, 45,000 incidents of domestic violence were reported in Queens, and nearly 250,000 citywide.
In 2006, eight people in Queens were killed during family-related homicide, according to statistics released by the Police Department - which includes spouses and domestic partners killed by each other and children who die from violence within their family. In 2005, the number in the borough was 10.