ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Some local organizations are feeling the pinch after learning the governor cut funds for several programs from the new fiscal year budget with line item vetoes.

The move took a St. Pete mental health organization by surprise.

Dr. LaDonna Butler is the CEO of The Well for Life. She said she has dedicated her life and her business to helping people.

“The well is a healing space. It’s a place where we provide comprehensive counseling services,” she said. “We provide opportunity for our community to do connection, and then we train the next generation of workforce in order to meet the mental health needs of our community.”

The Well for Life is located inside of a small boutique sized office and they’ve been offering services for the past six years.

“This is our headquarters right here on the deuces on 22^nd Street which is our historic district," said Butler.

Butler said every year they’re at their current location, it reaffirms how much their services are needed.

“I think it’s a myth that we don’t seek help. What I’ve learned from being here is we seek help from people we trust,” she said. "Black people do get counseling. Not just black people. All of us get counseling but on our own terms.”

With increased crime and violence impacting Black and Brown communities like the ones they serve, Butler said she asked lawmakers for funding to expand their services to help with the impacts of trauma.

“We were so excited. We were excited because they were excited to see there was a real plan that had been used in other states that really met the needs of the community there,” Butler said.

The funding made it all the way to the governor’s desk, only to be vetoed.

“To hear that it was line item vetoed, we really were shaken,” Butler said. “Those dollars would’ve been investments to really help people that have concrete needs, counseling, peer support, the things we know Florida residents care about.”

Dashon Mims is proof those dollars are needed here. 

“I think my family has probably been clouded in trauma if I’m being quite honest. Even before my generation, going to my mom’s, my grandparents,” Mims said.

Her older brother Derrick was just murdered last month.

“It’s been difficult. We were supposed to hang out the very next day. We had plans of hanging out the very next day, so that was kind of a struggle and the 'What if I was with him, something could’ve happened to me' and my parents lose two children at once,” said Mims.

Through her seeking care and offering her own experience to help others at the Well for Life, Mims said she’s learned she’s the not the only one carrying this heavy burden. That is why Butler says the slash in funding only adds to the trauma this community is facing.

“So within the budget were things like participant expenses,” she said. “So, we believe that if a person needed a new lock or a new window because they had been harmed, we would be able to pay for those things or if they needed support in relocating to a safer place, money in the budget to be able to support those things.

"Things that no person who is navigating mental health or crime and violence should have to think about, embedded in the project, embedded in the budget. Simply needed a signature.”

She said they will have to do what their community has always done.

“One thing about this community is we have always found a way. We’ve always found a way at kitchen tables. We found a way through volunteering, we found a way through advocacy and reaching out to our business community so we’ll continue to do that,” said Butle.

“We’re asking businesses that want to invest in maybe covering counseling sessions. To our business community, we know that you can allocate resources because we are worthy of investment. Our mental health is worthy of community investment. So, we stand ready to partner in real ways.”

Another Bay Area project vetoed by the governor was to help fund a project to fix flooding issues for a project called operation P-A-R, which is a licensed residential substance treatment program that caters to pregnant and parenting women.

We reached out to the governor’s office about these cuts to the budget but never heard back.