Juneau abuse counseling center to close

JUNEAU (AP) A counseling center devoted to treating people for violence and substance abuse will close at the end of the month.

Tongass Community Counseling Center, which opened about 21 years ago, employed six people and served about 600 clients a year.

Center officials said it will close because it did not receive a state grant, worth about $70,000 in past years, for a program that counsels batterers, many of whom were convicted of domestic violence crimes. The batterers collectively pay about $45,000 a year in fees for their counseling.

The state general-fund allocation for the grants in the upcoming fiscal year was reduced to $200,000 from $320,000 this year. The grants are allocated by the seven-member Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in a competitive process, said Cathy Satterfield, acting executive director.

The Tongass center's annual budget was about $300,000. All funds but the batterer-intervention grant and a separate grant to counsel prisoners came from client fees.

The batterers-intervention program served 110 to 120 people a year. The center will refer clients to general counseling or other programs.