Kenai children’s advocacy center warns core funding will expire; asks council to consider general‑fund support

Representatives of the Kenai Peninsula Children’s Advocacy Center told the Kenai City Council on May 21 that a major five‑year federal grant that helped pay staff and services for child abuse investigations expires at the end of the city’s fiscal year in June, and the center asked the council to consider adding unrestricted support to the city’s general fund.

The center’s local representative, Morgan Lyons of the Kenai CAC, told council that the nonprofit — operated under the Haven House umbrella in Homer — coordinates law enforcement, the Office of Children’s Services, the district attorney and tribal partners for child abuse, severe neglect and related forensic services. Lyons said the office in Kenai handled “anywhere from 150 to 200 cases a year” out of the center’s wider caseload, and that the national grant awarded after a 2019 federal review of children’s advocacy centers will run out at the end of this fiscal year.

Why it matters: the center provides forensic nursing…