Offering a way forward

From left, CASA Marion CFO Sherry Clester and Director of Program Services Gaby Holton Sr. [Photo courtesy CASA Marion]

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Posted November 20, 2024 | By Andy Fillmore, andy@ocalagazette.com

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A former resident of CASA Marion’s recently opened domestic violence emergency shelter said the organization saved not only her life but the lives of her pre-teen son and preschool age daughter.

CASA stands for “Community Action Stops Abuse.” CASA Marion is the name of the state certified domestic violence abuse services provider that opened in Ocala in January under the umbrella of the long-established CASA Pinellas in St. Petersburg.

The vision of CASA Marion is a “society free from domestic violence.”

According to the victim—who, at shelter officials’ request, is identified only as Jane—she suffered years of increasing isolation and a pattern of control from having her activities around the family home constantly monitored to taking control of her income. She fled the home with her two children after a life-threatening incident.

“If not for CASA Marion, myself and my two children would be out on the street and perhaps even dead,” said Jane.

“I had tried to leave several times before and he always found me wherever I was staying, even when I went to a domestic violence shelter …,” Jane wrote in part in an email.

CASA Marion is one of Florida’s 41 certified domestic violence service centers. The agency provides services including a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter for victims and their children, case management, education and legal information, as for example, protective injunctions.

After CASA Marion opened here in January with a temporary emergency shelter, it opened a permanent emergency shelter that can accommodate about 40 people in August.

CASA Special Events and Marketing Manager Amber Valente discussed the Marion facility in an email.

“Community Action Stops Abuse (CASA) has been providing exceptional domestic violence services in Pinellas County for 46 years. The award-winning Florida-certified domestic violence service agency, CASA, has now expanded to begin serving Marion County survivors through the newly formed CASA Marion,” she wrote.

“CASA Marion board members include Marion County Commissioner Michelle Stone, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods, Ken Ausley and David Tillman,” and the organization has an advisory committee, Valente noted.

According to information provided by Valente, one in three women and one in four men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime and Marion County ranks third in the state for domestic violence offenses.

Domestic violence is defined in part in CASA literature as violence used to “gain and maintain control.” The literature states “perpetrators often manipulate current or former intimate or family members through learned behaviors.”

Valente said that during CASA Marion’s first nine months of operation: 8,406 services were provided, 604 were people served, 633 hotline calls were answered, 160 people were served through emergency shelter and 1,242 incidents of justice advocacy provided at the Marion County Courthouse.

CASA CEO Lariana Forsythe has praised the “incredible support” for CASA Marion by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Ocala Police Department. Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano has been very supportive as well.

Forsythe told the Marion County Board of County Commissioners during a recent meeting that there is a “tremendous need” here for the services offered by CASA Marion.

CASA Marion channeled Marion County funds available through a Rapid Rehousing program to Jane and she is now settled in a home. She has become involved with a local church whose members helped with some of her and her kids’ needs, and she has taken a woman’s empowerment class and has a part-time job and a budget.

Jane said she feels like she’s “in control” and that her kids, who she described as living in fear previously, are more outgoing and “more talkative.”

“Now the kids are happy, and they wave at people. My son said he’d like to be a policeman,” she wrote.

Overall, Jane said, she loves her home but perhaps more importantly, now is the first she’s felt safe from the abuse.

“I’m not afraid anymore,” she said.

CASA Marion recently announced their “Hope for the Holidays Drive” to collect donations of non-perishable food, toys and other needs for school and play for kids like Jane’s two children. Businesses can request a donation drop-off box and items can be dropped off at the CASA Marion administrative offices at 717 SW Martin Luther King Ave., Bldg.6, Ocala, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, through Dec.13.

For more information, call (352) 722-2272 or visit casamarion.org