By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The Barren River Area Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit founded in 1998 with the mission of “caring for children and young adults that are the victims of abuse in our region of KY,” has purchased land within the Glasgow city limits with the goal of building a satellite office to provide services that are more easily accessible to residents of its 10 county region.
“Barren County is the second largest county that we serve in terms of number of kids and that’s partially because of the size of the county,” Leah Thompson, executive director of the nonprofit, said. “So it just made sense…to start in an area where we have the second largest number that we serve.”
According to the Property Valuation Administrator’s website a 3.11 acre property, along YMCA Way and owned by Manihari LLC, was sold on Oct. 25 to BRACAC for $125,000. The nonprofit then decided to sell back 2.36 acres to Bharat Mody, the manager of Manihari LLC, for $94,763 on Feb. 14, leaving 0.75 acres for the nonprofit.
“With the original purchase we did [buy] the 3.11 acres but we, our board [and others], determined we didn’t need more than three-quarters of an acre so we sold it back all the acreage except the three-quarters,” Thompson said.
Currently, the nonprofit only has one office in downtown Bowling Green, which can be an inconvenience for those individuals needing services who are not in, or in close proximity to, Warren County — BRACAC services, which includes victim advocacy and support, medical examinations, forensic interviews, mental health services and more, are available to people of Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Metcalfe, Monroe, Simpson and Warren counties.
Thompson said it is still very early in the process but confirmed it will be a brick-and-mortar satellite office. Many of the details, such as the square footage of the building, will likely be decided when the board, staff and stakeholders meet in August to set the nonprofit’s strategic plan for the future, Thompson said.
“We will be deciding which services we will be able to provide at this satellite office,” Thompson said. “I would imagine you would see mental health services there first and foremost because those are the services we continue to see kids [needing them the most]. It’s really yet to be determined.”
“It’ll be very process oriented in nature and certainly not something that will happen overnight,” Thompson added.
Though the center has purchased the property, Thompson said to the Barren County Fiscal Court on Feb. 21 that they will likely pause that project while they “stabilize and diversify” their funding.
Thompson said the organization — which accepts donations and holds fundraisers — gets a large portion of its funding from the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, which took a hit during the pandemic. As a result, she is going to each county’s fiscal court and each city’s council to ask for additional assistance.
During the Feb. 21 fiscal court meeting she was recognized by the court and asked them to “respectfully consider” increasing their award from the current $3,000 to $10,000 in Fiscal Year 2025. That request was met with strong approval from County Attorney Mike Richardson who said “BRACAC’s services are essential.”
“We are in a time in the organization’s history where it is really important to diversify our funding,” Thompson said. “While we have historically received federal funding that funding is really kind of under attack. We’re just not receiving the same support from VOCA…so I’m urging [fiscal] courts to carefully consider how we can all pull together more locally to fill some of these gaps.”
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