By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

The Kissimmee City Commission denied a $10,000 business operations request from the director of Grace Landing, a program for young men who have aged out of the foster care system in Osceola County, saying it had already allocated its social service funds and didn't want to set the wrong precedent.

Juda Attkisson, founder of Grace Landing, 1864 Boggy Creek Road, requested the funds shortly before the commission voted on how to spend its $240,000 social service fund, which was set during a city budget workshop in July.

The city's approved social service list included: Community Coordinated Care for Children ($8,000); Children’s Home Society of Florida ($8,000); The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families ($8,000); HELP NOW of Osceola County ($30,000); HOME Project ($36,000); Park Place Behavioral Health Care ($50,000); and the Osceola County Council on Aging ($100,000).

Grace Landing, a faith-based nonprofit that provides living space for young men 18 to 23 who have aged out of the state foster care system, signed a lease with Osceola County in March for the Boggy Creek Road site. The nonprofit’s program is designed to teach life and independent living skills to six young men staying at the facility, according to the nonprofit’s business plan. Life skills would include cooking, cleaning, health and nutrition, relationships, job skills, leadership, goal-setting, time management and how to budget, invest and save.

Last year, according to Attkisson, 63 people aged out of state foster care system in the county, 29 females and 34 males, and in the first six months of 2010 there will be 53 aging out, 31 males and 22 females.

“I doubt that many of us can imagine the terror, the panic, the sheer hopelessness that must overwhelm a foster care child on his or her 18th birthday, realizing they no longer have a home or a family and that they are on their own,” Attkisson said.

Foster youth without direction are less likely to earn a living wage, have economic hardships, more likely to be a single-parent and have brushes with the law, Attkisson said.

“We don't allow them to do nothing,” Attkisson said of the youth in the program. “If they do  that, they cannot stay.”

Commissioner Jerry Gemskie applauded Attkisson's efforts, but stressed that the city’s social service money had already been allocated.

“I feel like if we were to give you any kind of financial help right now, we would be setting a precedent for someone else to come here because it (the fund) is already budgeted,” he said.

Plus, he was hesitant to give a beginning agency funding, saying he wanted to see it established for several years first.

“I want to see the experience you are going to prove in the next three years and then I would recommend you come back in front of the commission,” Gemskie said.

But Commissioner Art Otero disagreed with turning Grace Landing down because he said he saw merits in the program.

“I feel strong about it,” he said. “I think this organization will do something. This will keep kids in school. This will keep kids away from problems.”

Otero recommended dipping into the city's $100,000 contingency fund for the money.

That was not a suggestion Mayor Jim Swan was willing to support, noting that money was more of a safety net for the city.

“I think that given history and hurricanes and who knows what else, it would be unwise to use contingency funds,” he said.

The commission took no action on Attkisson's request.

But she did propose a parting inquiry to commissioners.

“I just want to say that if you guys in your business have a job that these boys can earn a little extra money, that would be great,” she said.