Nassau Safe Center Provides Model for Suffolk County
District Attorney Kathleen Rice Speaks about the opening of the Safe Center
By Kyle Barr
There is a forest painted on the wall just to the left as you walk into the interview room. It is filled with thin trees, birds and bees that glow in the sunshine from a oversized sun. “We try and make it as smooth a transition as possible for the kids,” said Community Educator Kristy Longman as she shut the light to one of the many child interview rooms. Every few feet there is another room with another painting inside the Safe Center LI of Nassau County.
Ms. Longman heads down another hallway. There is a sudden transition into white walls, cubicles and overhead lights of a regular office building. On those walls hang small orange papers, laminated and stuck onto one of the walls with tape. Ms. Longman reads it out loud, “One in five kids are sexually abused before the age of 18.” There are many of these spread throughout the Safe Center.
On March 18, the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV) and the Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect (CCAN) formed a merger to bring both together along with their resources to create the Safe Center LI located on 15 Grumman Road West in Bethpage, NY.
The Safe Center, combining the resources of both groups, aims to provide aid all different forms of victims of abuse from victims of domestic violence, child abuse, rape, sexual assault and dating violence. The center attempts to offer counseling and therapy for victims, transitional housing, safe homes for abused families and legal services that provides Pro bono attorneys for people seeking representation in anything from child custody, paternity, immigration and divorce.
The press conference, attended by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, tried to showcase the benefits of having both agencies combined into one non-profit center for every different kind of abuse.
“Everybody knows that government alone can’t solve every problem and that’s why the progressive, groundbreaking collaboration we have her is so important,” said DA Rice. The center also holds a team of investigators from Nassau County including Police Detectives, Child Protective Services, District Attorney and Nassau University Medical Center who are co-located on site.
When asked about the possibility for people from Suffolk county to attain services, Director Scott said that they would not refuse aid to anyone who came by, but DA Rice was quick to say that police had no jurisdiction in Suffolk County, and that calls of danger would have to be directed to Suffolk County Police. Several other centers were pointed out for people in Suffolk County including Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk, The Retreat Domestic Violence Services and Brighter Tomorrows.
Safe Center LI Co-Executive Director Cynthia G. Scott took the podium and spoke about the merger. “The decisions to collocate and to merge were both mission driven… it was done to bring the best and most comprehensive services to the people of Nassau County.”
Yet, Director Scott also touched on the financial benefits of the merger. The Safe Center has seen an “unexpected” increase in fund-raising, saying that apparently “people like mergers.”
For the past four years, both the CCAN and the CADV were both housed under one roof. The merger has only completed the process that had already been happening for a while. “Being under one roof for four years proved our hypothesis that in doing so it would benefit our clients. We knew merging into one organization would allow us to collaborate and coordinate services in ways we couldn’t as two,” said Director Scott.
Baseball: Sharks Falls Short To Bronx Community College 10-5
By Jim Ferchland
The Suffolk County Community College Clippers and the Bronx Community College Broncos faced off in a doubleheader on Saturday, May 3 at the Ammerman Campus. The Clippers were victorious the first game 10-5. SCCC entered the game with a record of 19-9 and BCC entered 9-20. It was a must-win for the Bronx because a victory punched their ticket in to the playoffs. It’s the last game of the season for both teams. If SCCC wins, they would play Queensborough in the playoffs, and if BCC wins, they would play SCCC again in the first round. The Clippers have been on an absolute tear winning 15 of their last 16. They finished the season remaining perfect on the road(11-0). Baseball podcast
Suffolk baseball players running off the field against Bronx Community College.
Jorge Ruiz, parent of Clippers’ second basemen, Jorge Ruiz, explained the significance and dominance of this year’s team and what their goal is. “The team has had a lot of success this season”, Ruiz said. “We beat everybody here and we are hoping to get to Texas where the best teams play”.
Pitching for the Bronx was right-hander Lutty Santiago who pitched a complete game for the Broncos. He pitched all seven innings, allowed up five runs, gave up nine hits, struck out four, and had two walks. However, the Clippers’ bullpen was struggling giving up ten runs overall and utilizing three pitchers.
Pitching for the Clippers was starting right-hander Dillon Burke who really had truble facing the Broncos’ hot bats. He only pitched 1 and 2/3 innings, gave up seven hits, allowed six runs, and only struck out one batter. Substituted in the 2nd inning was left-handed Richard Motta, who pitched 2 and 2/3 innings, gave up three runs, struck out three, but had trouble getting the ball over the point and allowed four walks. The last pitcher to substitute for the Clippers’ was right-hander,Ryan Dollop, who completed the rest of the game and stopped the bleeding for SCCC. He struck out five, allowed three hits, and gave up one run.
Right-hander Ryan Dollop for SCCC gave up one run, struck out five, allowed three hits, and a walk in a loss to the Broncos on Saturday afternoon.
Victor Leroux started the enormous run support for the Broncos in the second inning where they would score six runs. He hit a a two-run double over the center fielder’s(Travis George) head which gave the Broncos a 2-0 advantage. After Leroux, Franyi Santana hit an RBI single between thrid and short increasing the lead to 3-0. For more insurance runs, Broncos Daniel Rojas received a two run infield single on an error by Clippers second baseman, Jorge Ruiz, which stretched the deficit to 5-0. The final run in the inning was accredited by Jose Marte, who nailed the ball down the third base line receiving an RBI double as the Broncos concluded on a monster six run inning.
SCCC’s head coach, Glen Brown, was still confident in his team and he urged his team to get it together, by stating,”we are more than capable of coming back, we need to stop fooling around,” Brown exclaimed to his team in the middle half of the fourth inning.
It seemed to only get worse at the moment for the Clippers as they allowed three more runs in the top of the fourth which mostly came off of walks and a wild pitch by Richard Motta. Motta was pulled that inning and replaced by Ryan Dollop.
As SCCC was trailing 9-0 in the top of the 5th, Clippers scorekeeper and stat manager, Sam Egan, urged the team that they could get mercied. “This would probably be our worst loss of the season,” Egan said. We would hate to close out the season like this”.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Clippers bats began to heat up and rallied a five run inning. Clippers Tyler Bell, roped a 2-run double to right center which got the Clippers on the board 9-2. Next up bat, was pitcher Ryan Dollop who hit an infield single directed to second base. Dollop, then steals second which brought Bell to score which made it 9-3. Next at bat, was shortstop, Shawn Blasberg, who drove in Dollop on a bloop single to right field which made the score 9-4. To conclude to rally, catcher, Michael Hewson, hit a bloop single to center which drove in Blasberg to make the score 9-5.
The Broncos still had one run left in them as third basemen, Daniel Rojas, hit an RBI single to left and pushed the lead to 10-5. Clippers could not capitalize and make another big rally as the Suffolk County College Clippers fall short 10-5 to Bronx Community College Broncos.
SCCC’s head coach Glen Brown addresses his team in the huddle after losing to Bronx Community College in second game of Saturday’s Doubleheader.
Head Coach Glen Brown, addressed his team in the huddle in left field reminding them on how far they have come to get to this point, the playoffs. “We have come a long way”, Brown said after the game. Kudos to us. We started off the season 0-6 and finished 17-3 in our region. We finished the season 19-10. Im proud of my guys but kudos to the Bronx for playing a great game”.
Benefits of Community College
By Kyle Barr
The first thing they tell you at Suffolk is that eventually you are going to leave.
They tell you that after only two years that you will go off to either the workforce or some other school. You slip through the advising center without any idea of where you’re going or what else to really do but to attend the next class. Theres no mission objective, but some vague line at the end of distant road. A line that, when you finally cross, there’s not much time for reflection.
It is the distance that makes everything seem so pointless. Suffolk is often counted as that distant school, or the easy school, the poor school, the school that the people who couldn’t get into the better schools.
Suffolk is a far away school. It is a distant school. It doesn’t matter how close or far away you live. When you attend Suffolk County Community College the first recognizable distinctive feature is the inherent distance a student feels to it’s grounds, it’s students, its faculty and atmosphere.
Other 4-year schools have one distinctive advantage over Suffolk. They not only have the option of letting you room and board, they allow you access on a constant basis to all it’s activities. Many more students at 4-year room and board colleges do not have jobs, where most in Suffolk do. It is a drive to get into Suffolk, to attend lecture and to do the work.
But the truth is, Suffolk counts as much as you make it count.
It’s distance is it’s advantage. When a student comes to Suffolk, he is coming to it in a certain mindset. Most students are fresh from high school where their experience there has not taught them much at all. It doesn’t matter how much they paid attention in class or how high their grade was. High school was a enclosed system. The outside world was just that, on the outside.
Out of high school, a person has few choices. One is to throw themselves completely in the deep end of the workforce, or go to a more expensive college, where you enter another enclosed system and spend a lot of money doing it.
Suffolk is a medium. It is not perfect, but that distance that is Suffolk’s greatest enemy is also it’s greatest strength. You can invest in Suffolk as much as you wish.
In most other colleges, a years tuition can go into the tens of thousands. When you enter on a major, you either stick with it, or you drop it, and many times effectively waste thousands of dollars.
At Suffolk, you are more than welcome to explore. Some majors are more restrictive than others, but Suffolk is the best opportunity one has to truly explore different subjects. It is not so much about throwing a dart at a dartboard filled with possible jobs and just picking what sticks. A student can take that extraneous class without feeling like one is just wasting money. It allows you the years that were said to only exist in high school where young people can test the waters. See where one wants to be.
That distance allows a student the ability to get experience in both work and school. That distance is the same space that allows you to ask the necessary questions, to ponder what might make you happy in life. The pressures of life from money to relationships are all still there, but compared to other schools, that pressure to stick to a major is not nearly as much present. Good grades are all still important especially for transfer students, but that Liberal Arts degree is not an employable death sentence.
Suffolk hires many Adjunct professors, who essentially amount to part time professors. The requirements for this position are somewhat less exclusive than full-time professors, most need a masters degree in their subject.
Just like any other job, these professors could range from terrible to the most memorable you have. But these professors have a often unseen benefit, the Adjuncts are usually hirees from people in the workforce in jobs that pertain to their subjects. They understand what the job is like, what are the difficulties and what are the benefits.
The distance isn’t an excuse for Suffolk’s problems, the campus isn’t perfect and there is more than one nasty or boring professor. The advising center often shoots you out into the Suffolk environment without a thought to your personal desires or character. But Suffolk isn’t the lazy school. Suffolk is the distant school. You take out what you put in. It allows you to decide what inside makes it all worth the drive.
The Lighthouse News 