FAITH

In 2008, FAITH ensured that a local provider, ACT/Stewart Marchman, is providing adequate care for our mentally ill inmates.

In 2009, FAITH won local hiring agreements in the cities of Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach, giving local workers an advantage when looking for jobs. In 2010, FAITH convinced Volusia County Council to pass a “Local Contractor Preference” that gives our Volusia based companies up to a 5% preference on county funded bids.

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, F.A.I.T.H. found ways to organize for justice in Volusia County. In 2020, FAITH made great progress in our campaign to reduce misdemeanor youth arrests through Civil Citations. While Civil Citations are available as an alternative to lifelong criminal records to children who commit non-serious misdemeanors, less than half of all eligible children are receiving them in Volusia County! During a virtual meeting with FAITH’s Youth Committee, we won the commitment of State Attorney RJ Larizza to enact a new local policy in which prosecutors must review a child offender’s eligibility for civil citations before filing their arrest.

In 2017 FAITH began to tackle the issue of school suspensions in public schools after we uncovered the awful reality that Volusia’s rate of suspension was higher than almost all other counties in the state. We learned that out of school suspensions have been proven to be ineffective and harmful in correcting misbehavior. Furthermore, in Volusia County Schools, children with disabilities and children of color were twice as likely to be suspended than their classmates. FAITH identified an alternative to suspension, Restorative Practices, which addresses misbehavior without kicking children out of the classroom. At the 2019 Action Assembly, FAITH called for the commitment of the Volusia County School Board Members to implement Restorative Practices and to reduce out of school suspensions. By the very next year, Restorative Practices had been implemented in many Volusia County Schools and high school out-of-school suspensions had dropped by 76%!

This is a service many groups in the community, including Votran itself, had been trying to get for 6 years. FAITH was successful in securing a commitment from the county to run the bus service until midnight, which enabled many to work in the service industries. This service began in January, 2003 and Votran reports that the ridership is up nearly 400 riders per night.

A substance abuse treatment program in our local jail was implemented in May, 2001, but was eliminated by the county six years later. In 2009, FAITH won commitments to reinstate a new and improved substance abuse program (through Haven Recovery) for inmates in our jail that also provides diversion and continued treatment in a residential facility upon release. The program now saves the county more than $2,000,000 a year and over 500 inmates have successfully completed treatment because of FAITH’s efforts.

In 2017 FAITH’s Mental Health & Addiction committee won commitments from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Department and the Daytona Beach Police Department to begin arming their officers with the lifesaving NARCAN nasal spray, which reverses the effects of opioid overdose. Both law enforcement agencies have fulfilled their commitments and as a direct result, 71 lives in our county were saved in 2018 alone!

After a grueling 8 year campaign, in 2017 FAITH secured over $8 million in funding for a homeless assistance center called the First Step Shelter. First Step Shelter currently has about 50 residents in the shelter. In 2020, First Step Shelter treated 135 people with substance abuse of mental health problems, got 75 people health insurance, helped 66 people get into permanent housing, and helped 109 people get connected to SSI/unemployment.

On June 24th, 2020 over a hundred cars poured into the Daytona Beach Drive-In Church for FAITH’s Drive-In Rally for Affordable Housing! Representing a diverse array of congregations, FAITH members safely assembled together, while remaining in the safety of their vehicles, to demand that the Volusia County Council create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund of $7 million a year. Nearly one in three renter households in our area are paying over half of their income on rent. A countywide Affordable Housing Trust Fund would foster the creation and rehabilitation of affordable units for working families. Three County Council Members attended the Drive-In Rally and each publicly committed to the creation of the housing trust fund.