What is now known as Suncoast Center, Inc. DBA Help A Child. began as a grant funded contract at All Children's Hospital in 1979. The grant was from the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) through the Children's Medical Services Division, and it funded the Child Protection Team, with special components of Medical Foster Care and the Parent Aide Program. Our total staff at that time consisted of eight full time people, two half time people, and a portion of a shared Medical Director. Our total budget was just under $500,000, and we were often reminded that we were on a year by year state supported grant, and that the programs were considered "pilot" programs that may or may not be continued the next year!

The largest part of our grant and the name of the contract was the Child Protection Team and it was a brand new concept of the state of Florida. The legislature decided that a multidisciplinary approach to child protection could greatly augment the one-dimensional system that existed at the time. The Florida Pediatric Society had worked closely with key legislators at the time, helping them to understand that the current HRS investigators were not trained to provide medical opinions as to causation of children's injuries, nor were they trained to adequately assess mental illness, adult intelligence factors, or effects of abuse on a child's emotional wellbeing. They also did not have training in the practice of law, yet they were making decisions as to legal sufficiency to remove children from their parents, and they were writing petitions for the court.

The 1978 Florida legislature enacted a law to create multidisciplinary child protection teams and to appropriate funding for them. Thus the HRS protective investigators were given access to a team of trained pediatricians, social workers, nurses, psychologists, and attorneys to assist them in the diagnosis of abuse, assessment of risk, and formulation of treatment plans for abused and neglected children. Five such teams existed in 1979, and now there are 23 teams across the state of Florida.

Our local team covered Pinellas and Pasco counties, and we had two additional special service components: medical foster care and parent aide, both of which were staffed by only one full time position each.

Another component of the Child Protection Team was the Parent Aide Program. This was a relatively new concept built on the idea that parents who are socially isolated and lacking in a support system were more vulnerable to the effects of stress and were more likely to have problems of child abuse or neglect. The program utilized trained volunteers, usually parents, to provide a supportive relationship to a parent who was struggling with childrearing. Thus the isolation was diminished, new coping skills were modeled and shared, and abuse and neglect were avoided.

Within a year or two, our agency was approached by the local Exchange Club regarding the Parent Aide Program, as the national project for the Exchange Clubs was the parent aide approach. By 1982, we had made arrangements for the local clubs to "adopt" our Parent Aide Program. They established a separate nonprofit corporation, The Exchange Center of the Suncoast for the Prevention of Child Abuse, Inc. The program itself continued to be co-located with us for many years, and served as an excellent resource for parents at risk of abuse.

Our other original program was Medical Foster Care. It was formally named the Allyn B. Giffin Medical Placement Home Program, after Dr. Allyn Giffin, a local pediatrician who helped to secure our original state grant and ensured that the medical foster care service was a component. This program utilizes specially trained family foster care homes for children who have medical problems that are so complex that they cannot be safely cared for in their own families or in traditional foster care. The program now utilizes 23 foster homes and employs six staff members, as compared to the original two registered nurses who shared the one staff position.

In 1988, the three programs under the state grant became incorporated as Suncoast Child Protection Team, Inc. and moved from All Children's Hospital to their own offices in north St. Petersburg. During the same time period, we were negotiating with authorities in Pasco County and some key legislators to secure additional funding for a separate Child Protection Team in Pasco. The vast majority of our children served were in Pinellas, but Pasco was a fast growing county and we did not have enough resources to serve the children of Pasco adequately. The legislature passed a special appropriation in 1988 for a Pasco Child Protection Team, and it was our job over the next 18 months to help start it. We helped form a not for profit corporation, establish a Board of Directors, secure offices, hire, train and supervise staff, create policies, and begin serving children and families.

Shortly thereafter, a new need surfaced. Children who were sexually molested by a non-family member were underserved in Pinellas. These forensic medical exams were provided by the Medical Examiner at the county morgue, and there were few, if any, supportive social services/crisis intervention services for these child victims. We first secured funding through Crime Victim's Compensation to provide forensic medical exams by our trained pediatrician in our child-friendly facility for these young victims. We then applied for and received a grant from the Victims of Crime Act through the Florida Attorney General's Office to allow us to provide crisis intervention, short-term therapy, and court advocacy for these children. We now employ three therapists in the Child Abuse Recovery Services (CARS) Program to meet these children's emotional needs and to help their families to support them.

In the year 2000, the Exchange Center Board of Directors decided to investigate the possibilities of a merger with a larger organization, as their economy of scale was daunting with a staff of only four people, yet all of the expense of running an agency. During that same time, Suncoast Child Protection Team, Inc. was considering ways of becoming involved with child abuse prevention in an effort to balance our corporate mission and psyche. At that time, all of our programs were "deep end" in that our services and interventions primarily came into play after serious abuse had occurred. Negotiations for a successful reunification were completed with a merger of the two corporations in July of 2001. In November 2000, we had already changed our corporate name to Help A Child, Inc. in anticipation of adding prevention services.

In April 2002, Help A Child was awarded a grant by the Juvenile Welfare Board with federal funding to start the Safe Start Partnership Center. Help A Child is the lead agency in collaboration with The Haven, CASA, Pinellas County Health Dept., and 211 Tampa Bay Cares on this project. The Partnership Center provides comprehensive assessments to children up to the age of six who have been exposed to violence. The violence can be child abuse, domestic violence, or community violence. The program employs five staff members.

On July 1, 2003, Help A Child took over the administration of the Sexual Assault Victim Examination (SAVE) Team. The SAVE Team has been providing forensic medical exams and medical follow-up treatment for adult and adolescent victims of sexual assault since the 1980's. Funding is provided through Crime Victim's Compensation and the Pinellas County Health Dept. The program employs advanced registered nurse practitioners and medical assistants who are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide exams for rape victims. The majority of the exams are provided at Help A Child, but the exams can also be provided at a hospital, the jail, and other secure facilities.

 . In 2009, with economic uncertainties looming, Help A Child researced the possibilities of partnerships, collaborations and merges in the community. After thorough investigation, The Help A Child board and management team determined that Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health was the best partner for us moving forward. Suncoast’s broad programmatic structure and diverse service delivery was an excellent fit for the specialized programming that Help a Child  provides. Due to the programmatic fit between Suncoast and Help A Child a merger provided a comprehensive and superior quality service delivery agency to the community. We  merged with Suncoast for these reasons as well as for Suncoast’s excellent reputation in the community and their quality management team.  The Merger became official April 1st 2009, renaming us Suncoast Center, Inc. DBA Help A Child. This merger allowed us to continue to deliver services to the high needs populations we currently serve