Charlotte group that helps abused children changes name, seeks more support
Amid funding troubles, a Charlotte nonprofit that helps abused children has changed its name.
Staff at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Charlotte, long known as Pat’s Place, hope the rebrand will remind people what they do and bring in new money.
Founded in 2004, the nonprofit helps children who have been abused get medical examinations, file for victim compensation and more. Experts at the nonprofit also interview abused children on prosecutors’ behalf, helping land convictions in court.
Pat’s Place was named for local community advocate Pat Wolfe, who died three years before the nonprofit started.
“We’ve operated under this name that’s held deep, personal meaning to us for more than 20 years,” said CEO Andrew Oliver. “But for anyone that’s driving by the center, we’ve struggled by the fact that our name doesn’t really say what we do.”
Indeed, multiple restaurants across North Carolina are also named Pat’s Place, he said. Recently, he shared with Wolfe’s family how the nonprofit would change its name in hopes of continuing the work she did, then made the new name public at an April 28 luncheon event.
Branding questions have been pressing at the center lately.
With a change in how it is funded by the federal government several years ago, and with North Carolina’s own legislature pitching in relatively little, the small team at the center has struggled, its CEO said.
Numbers from this year that he gathered from heads of other children’s advocacy centers similar in size and services show the government funding gap, he said: $5.2 million went to one in Fort Worth; about $5.1 million to a center in Omaha, Nebraska; over $3 million to one in Baltimore.
In Charlotte: $359,000.
“This is work that is the work of government,” Oliver said of the funding the Charlotte center has received. “It’s coming at the request of law enforcement partners and social workers to improve their cases and help make our community safer. … In North Carolina, it’s tough to appeal to the state for more funding when you don’t have a budget. At the federal level, the funding has all but dried up for victim services.”
It used to be that about 50% of the nonprofit’s funding came from private sources, he said, but that is closer to 75% now.
In the meantime, the nonprofit still has things to look forward to. They expect next spring to move into the Umbrella Center, a building where abuse survivors will be able to get help from everyone from police to social workers.
Even with the new name and the soon-to-be new location, the center’s work will be the same, Oliver said.
“I think we are doing more of that work than we’ve ever done before,” he said.