Good for Safe Space
One of Safe Space's greatest strengths is that we provide a range of integrated services. The move allows us to enhance program delivery, significantly reduce overhead costs, and improve administrative efficiency. By consolidating our Jamaica-based programs and administrative offices into our new Headquarters, the agency is now able to operate from one newly renovated and easily accessible building at 89-74 162nd Street in the heart of Jamaica. In addition, the Headquarters are close to subway lines and bus routes.
Good for Our Clients
Many Safe Space clients and their families take advantage of multiple services at any given time. With the consolidation, our staff can refer clients to services within the Safe Space umbrella, rather than at an outside agency, and within the same building, rather than blocks away. Clients can find therapists, social workers, substance abuse counselors and health educators at the same place were they can get prenatal and postnatal care, attend support groups, sign up for health insurance or get legal help in a domestic violence situation.
Good for the Neighborhood
Safe Space chose to focus entirely on Southeast Queens because the area has some of the highest rates of poverty, child abuse, and domestic violence in New York City.
A Citizens Committee for Children of New York study revealed the following demographic information for Queens Community District 12 (Jamaica/St. Albans) in 2008:
- 1,617 reported violent felonies, the second highest in NYC;
- 771 felony youth (under 16 years of age) arrests, the highest in any community district;
- Over 10% of new mothers received late or no prenatal care, the fifth highest of any community district:
- 64.1% of births were to single mothers;
- 3,532 children were reported as being abused or neglected, the second highest of any community district (behind the district that encompasses East New York);
- 757 children were living in foster care, the highest of any community district; and
- An estimated 3,300 seriously emotionally disturbed youth, the highest of any community district.
- The child victimization rate in the Rockaways was 27.3%, more than double the rate of Queens as a whole (11.8%) and significantly higher than that of NYC overall (17.4%). That year's child victimization rate in Jamaica – at 20.3% - also exceeded the Queens and NYC rates;
- Unemployment was 12.8% in Far Rockaway and 10.9% in Jamaica, as compared to 7.7% in Queens as a whole;
- 26% of Far Rockaway families with children under the age of 18 were below the poverty line as were 38% of all single-parent families. In Jamaica, almost 20% of family households had a total annual income of less than $25,000;
- Far Rockaway had a juvenile crime rate of 15.2 per 1,000 young adults, significantly higher than 10.6 for Queens as a whole;
- Rates of HIV infections in Jamaica were 163 per 100,000 individuals, more than double the rate of Queens as a whole (69 per 100,000); and
- According to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Jamaica had among the highest incidence of mental distress and depression in NYC, with more than 68% of adults receiving treatment for depression in 2008.
