Advocates for victims of violence fear federal funding cut
As Congress heads into its last few days in session this month, some fear an act that funds services for hundreds of thousands of domestic violence and sexual assault victims won’t be reauthorized before it expires on Sept. 30.
In total, 17 agencies in Ohio shared more than $10.5 million in fiscal year 2017 from the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which funds crisis and prevention services for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Local advocates say that some of the Central Ohio programs would have to make cutbacks or would cease to exist without the money.
“We live in a very volatile world,” said Mandi Crist, director of the Fairfield County Visitation Center, which provides supervised visits to children affected by abuse and other challenges and receives funding from the act. “It’s become increasingly more violent and unpredictable. If we don’t have some safeguards in our community to protect women and children, there’s going to be no (safety).”
The act was signed into law in 1994 and reauthorized by Congress with bipartisan support in 2000, 2005 and 2013. On July 26, Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee introduced a bill that would extend the act, but it only has Democratic sponsors so far. However, with the clock ticking, nearly 50 House Republicans, including Rep. Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, called on Speaker Paul Ryan this past week to take action before the act expires.
Other Ohio lawmakers who have said they support the reauthorization include Republican Sen. Rob Portman, Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat who co-sponsored the act.
Qudsia Raja, policy director at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, is urging lawmakers not to play partisan politics with the act.
“It’s a very polarized time we live in right now,” she said. “Issues that have been traditionally bipartisan are unfortunately caught in the polarization of issues right now.”
Yet she said the letter sent by Stivers and other House Republicans gives her hope.
In years past, when Congress struggled to find agreement, and the act hasn’t been reauthorized before it expired, Congress continued funding programs that benefited from the act through appropriations bills and other means, Raja said. There is funding included for VAWA in House and Senate appropriations bills.
The continuation of funding without a full reauthorization happened in 2013 and is “generous,” Raja said. But it isn’t an effective way of keeping programs supported by the act going long-term since funding is usually just for a year, she said.
The Violence Against Women Act created the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which answered over 320,000 calls, texts and chat requests for help in 2017, Raja said.
The act also funds local hotlines across the country as well as other outreach and prevention efforts, and helps support shelters and visitation centers for victims of violence, Raja said.
If it expires, several local programs will be affected, including the family care program at Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS), which caters to refugee and immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, advocates said.
The program was launched because of money from the act in 2014, but it is now mostly funded by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said Amy Harcar, the agency’s family care manager. Without the federal funding, ETSS would lose a part-time advocate who reaches out to the immigrant and refugee community, she said.
Harcar said the need is great. So far this year, the program has helped 80 victims, up from 10 its first year. An Ohio State report, done at the request of the city and released in July, also identified addressing domestic violence as an important need for refugee youth.
Green Dot, a training program that addresses bullying, dating violence and sexual assault being offered at area high schools, is also funded by the federal act.
“VAWA is the only dedicated prevention funding source in Ohio,” said Susan Wismar, a prevention coordinator at the OhioHealth Sexual Assault Response Network of Central Ohio who coordinates the Green Dot training. “It’s so substantial. Other sources of money are so small in comparison . ... If VAWA went away, I don’t know what would be left for survivor resources.”