Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The Family Justice Center received a surprise donation from the podcast that had a guest who claimed a coverup of abuse in Buffalo Public Schools.
The Unsubscribe podcast had Buffalo Police Department Detective Richard Hy on, who said the Buffalo Public Schools had been covering up abuses of students.
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The podcast announced a donation of $10,000 to the Family Justice Center. "We heard about it over the weekend, probably not long after the podcast started rolling out there, and we found out by an FJC supporter who's a follower of the podcast, who called to tell us and just said, 'Hey, did you did you see this? Did you hear about this?' We had no idea," says Kelly Gast.
Gast says to be grateful is an understatement. "This is funding literally landing in our laps, and at the same time, it's generating and increasing awareness of the life saving and critical work that we do and that our advocates do. When money like this comes in, literally, it gets put to use the next day. This is money that helps our most vulnerable clients and our clients most in need. And we have several programs and services that support the needs of our of our survivors," says Gast. She says with a relatively small budget, every dollar is accounted for. "There isn't just extra money out there that we can use for whatever we want. So when money like this comes in that's unrestricted, we are really able to help and, you know, let that money reach even more people."
Gast says part of our programming is having a detective of the day in house with us five days a week at the Family Justice Center. "There's a rotation of, 10 or 12 buffalo SVU detectives, so we always have someone on site, and we really value that relationship," says Gast. "We are grateful to all of the SVU detectives who work with us and for the partnership that we have with the Buffalo Police." Hy is an SVU detective with Buffalo Police
Gast says the Family Justice Center gets about 6,000 calls a year, translating to 1,500 active cases of domestic violence.