When it comes to the placement of severely disturbed children, Floyd County Juvenile Court Judge Tim Pape wishes the Youth Detention Center were a last resort.

Unfortunately, in most cases the YDC is the only resort, Pape said, and will remain as such until Murphy-Harpst, a Cedartown-based child-care agency, is able to raise the $3.5 million it needs to build its long-awaited Success Center in northern Floyd County.

Dubbed Camp SUCCESS (Strategically United Community Collaboration to Establish Successful Services), the agency’s Johns Mountain location will take on a non-institutional, camp-like atmosphere.

Pape was pleased to see $44,700 in proceeds from a silent auction and the third annual Charles Williams Sr. Memorial Golf Tournament further the agency’s fund-raising efforts Thursday, when Williams’ wife, Dot Williams, presented a check to Murphy-Harpst Vice President of Development Emily Saltino at Horseleg Plantation Country Club.

With that check, Saltino said, the total amount pledged for the Success Center totals more than $1 million, putting Murphy-Harpst a third of the way to its goal.

To Pape, that goal can’t be reached soon enough. Services for extremely troubled children — especially emotionally disturbed and mentally ill children — “are just not very good, nor do they exist. ... We don’t have access to services to find out what’s really going on and then provide treatment.”

Murphy-Harpst, Saltino explained, aims to avoid sending children to detention centers by “sending them to a place where they can be evaluated and treated and we can work with their family.”

This is most effective, Pape said, because “you know there’s something more going on than just the child. It’s a family in crisis.”

The faith-based program serves as a permanent home to troubled children of all ages until they can transition back into the community, Saltino said, after which the agency follows up by helping its charges become involved in character-building activities such as scouting, church and sports.

So far, she said, it has had an 87 percent success rate.

The new center, she said, will take Murphy-Harpst services to the next level through a collaboration of various agencies and experts.

If fund-raising for the center continues successfully, Saltino said, Murphy-Harpst hopes to begin construction within the next six to 12 months.