After 20 years as the elected district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties, Ben David retired from the role this year, but he won’t be far from the courtroom.

David is the chief executive officer and chief legal counsel for the newly formed Community Justice Center located in The Harrelson Center in downtown Wilmington.

“After 25 years of giving victims a voice at the courthouse and responding to crime, I felt called to move across the street from the courthouse to help victims find their voices and create a place for hope, healing and justice,” David said.

The Community Justice Center (CJC) assists survivors of trauma and adverse childhood experiences through wraparound services from law enforcement, prosecutors and counselors.

The center will co-locate police and prosecutors with representatives from five nonprofit and health organizations including the Open Gate Domestic Violence Shelter and Services Inc., Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Carousel Child Advocacy Center, New Hanover County Department of Social Services and Novant Health.

David describes the center as a “cocoon of safety” for collecting testimonial and physical evidence, one-stop-shop for legal aid, emergency room for trauma victims and healing services provided by trained individuals from the groups.

Working in the district attorney’s office for decades revealed for David many of the challenges that Wilmington faces in issues such as poverty, food deserts, affordable public housing and public health and safety.

“All of these issues lead to high crime,” he said. “The idea behind the Community Justice Center is to go beyond responding to crime to proactively prevent it. We intend to change the community, making it more resilient for children and families in crisis. And if we increase public health, we increase public safety. The CJC will be absolutely transformational.”

The center received $5 million in startup funding from the New Hanover Community Endowment.
David’s path to his latest project comes after a long and public career in law – a career that almost started on a vastly different path.

David grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and studied anthropology at the University of Florida, planning to go to medical school.

“At the last second, my identical twin brother, Jon (now the district attorney for Brunswick, Columbus and Bladen counties) convinced me to go to law school instead,” recalled Ben David, who chose Wake Forest University’s law school.

He began his law career by practicing corporate and trademark law at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a multi-disciplined, multinational law firm. After three years, Ben David left the private practice and went backpacking around the world for nine months.

Returning to the U.S. in April 1999, he received an invite from the DA in Wilmington to substitute for a senior prosecutor who was on a monthlong medical leave.

He said yes, and one month turned into two, two into three, and three into a permanent position. Ben David had ambitions to go into private practice and return to Florida to work with his brother, then a prosecutor in Miami. Instead, Ben convinced Jon to come north, and they worked together for 10 years as prosecutors.

“I loved being a voice for victims and helping victims find their own voices,” Ben David said. The people he met along the way – victims and family members, police officers, prosecutors, community members – have helped him put life in perspective, he said, to not sweat the small stuff.

“They increased my faith in humanity,” he said.

With his latest project, the CJC facility follows an outreach model that Ben David coined The Starfish Model.

The five arms – government, schools, business, nonprofits and faith organizations – are held together at the center by physical and mental health, healthy relationships and healthy lifestyles. Ben David points out that when an arm breaks off, a starfish will regenerate the lost appendage. “Communities that are broken can still fix themselves. People who have been traumatized can be resilient and not let the crime define their lives,” he added.

His immediate goals for the CJC include drafting an operational agreement and memorandum of understanding among the constituents and making sure the community is aware that the center is a free resource to victims and witnesses.

While funding from the New Hanover Community Endowment will carry the center for the next three years, much of the funding has already been absorbed by construction and salaries.

“My No. 1 job is to make the center permanent for 100 years, working inside and outside the government, for permanent funding,” Ben David said.

The center’s location at The Harrelson Center was strategic as well.

“Our combination of available space, ideal location and community partners already on-site, make The Harrelson Center a perfect location for this integrated center to support public health and safety,” Meade Van Pelt, The Harrelson Center’s executive director, said when the CJC was first announced.

The Harrelson Center, once the site of the county’s jail tower, was renovated and repurposed into a nonprofit campus that houses about 20 nonprofits – now including the CJC.

“The Harrelson Center is a former place of incarnation. Now, it’s a place of hope and resilience. That’s a beautiful story,” Ben David said. “Victims have constitutional rights in North Carolina, including the right to meet with prosecution, be represented in a criminal proceeding and to speak in front of a judge. Together the resources in this center will lift up these rights.”