A 70% drop in federal funding to states to help
victims of crime has advocates warning of dire consequences.
The grants to states for victim services are funded through federal fines and fees paid
by people convicted of a crime.
But the federal fund has sharply declined, leaving Wisconsin's annual funding expected
to go from more than $44 million to roughly $13 million.
The Wausau organization called the Women's Community, whose services help thousands of
victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking fears the loss of services.
It's executive director Jane Graham Jennings is here and thanks very much for being here.
Thank you and happy to be here.
So what is the expectation about how the drop in grant funds will affect your services?
Well you know the thing about serving victims of abuse is it's not just one community.
So these, the drop in funds will definitely impact the marathon county which is where
we serve and the Wausau community, but it will impact every community in our state.
Because all of the programs that are currently funded will see a significant decrease statewide.
So for the women's community in particular and the other thing that is, makes it a little
bit difficult for us to plan is we won't actually know the total decrease that we get
until August or September, just the way the grant process works.
So we won't really know in the best case scenario, we will be losing about $234,000
and that's just for the women's community.
How do you leave in weather such a loss?
We've been trying to plan for it for a while.
The state administrators have been exceptional in trying to keep us informed and planning
for a while.
This problem would have happened a few years ago except there were some ARPA dollars that
the state was able to put into plug the gap.
So that kept us operating and being able to keep our services operational for an additional
two years.
But that money is going away.
So now we're going to see those cuts.
So our board has been planning, we've been talking about it.
We have some funds for rainy day and then we just search for other dollars.
But again, we don't know exactly how much that is going to be.
So as soon as we know, then we're going to be rolling out all of our plans.
How important are victim services and what are some examples of what community of women
offers?
So we work with anyone who has been a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking
or human trafficking, adults, children, men, women, anyone who has been impacted.
Services include a number of things.
One thing that people are most familiar with is our shelter service.
And that's a place where people who are in violent situations trying to flee, to move
into safe housing can stay with us for a short time in an emergency shelter.
That's going to be impacted drastically by the funding cuts.
We provide ongoing supportive advocacy because when people have been harmed by someone they
love, which is most often what's happening in sexual assault and is the case of what's
happening in domestic violence, it's really a traumatic experience and people are trying
to figure out how to survive and how to rebuild their lives.
No one wants to come to services like the women's community because if you need our
services, something really bad has happened to you or someone you love.
So people come to us as a last resort and we want to be there to help rebuild them.
They come to us feeling broken and ashamed and judged and that no one believes them or
supports them and we want to help them rebuild that spirit.
Really, their soul has been crushed by the trauma that they've experienced and we just
try to help rebuild that.
We often use the analogy of a butterfly.
People come to us and they feel like they're the squishy, ugly caterpillar that people
just want to step on and then they go into their cocoon and in a short time they emerge
beautiful and free and that's the process we get to see when people come to us broken
and they leave us strong at the broken places.
Is domestic and sexual violence against women on the rise?
Unfortunately it is.
The most recent in the state of Wisconsin and domestic abuse Wisconsin does a domestic
violence related homicide report and the last one that was complete was in 2022 and 96
people in Wisconsin lost their lives due to domestic violence.
Unfortunately we are one of the top 10 states in the nation that has the highest level of
domestic related homicides in the country.
So this is not something that we are proud of and we're working really hard to figure
out how we can make an impact.
But there's still so much blaming that is done.
Victims are still blamed for so much of it.
People ask questions about victim's behavior.
Why do victims stay in abusive relationships?
Instead of really asking the question, why does someone who claims to love harm the person
they claim to love?
There's just not an incentive for people to behave better.
We need people to stop being harmful.
We have many more questions but we leave it there.
Jane, Graham, Jennings.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for your work.
Thank you.
One of my questions that I didn't want to muddy up your really eloquent speech on this
was, didn't the state budget put like $10 million in for sexual assault and victim services?
So there are a couple things that have happened in the state budget.
So in the initial budget that went through that Governor Evers put through, there was
increased funding for both domestic violence services and sexual assault services.
In the final budget that was passed, that was eliminated.
Oh, it was.
So those increases, it was.
Those increases were eliminated and those funds have not been adequately sustained for
decades, honestly, then with this VOCA cut that we were just saying, this is really
desperate and very frightening for the entire state.
There was actually a representative from Marathon County who authored a funding bill.
So that bill actually did pass.
So there are funds that are currently a bill that just passed a one time funding for the
next year has to be spent by June of 2025.
So the Office of Crime Victim Services is trying to figure out how to get those dollars
out to programs.
So that that was all.
It went very quickly.
So that's a, you know, a little bit of a saving grace, but it doesn't, it puts kind
of a band-aid on a gushing wound.
Right.
Wow.
Well, thank you.
I think we will continue to follow this and we wish you and other service agencies.
Good luck.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.