Pennsylvania Domestic Violence Funding Threatened

According to our friends at Women in Transition, two funding sources for domestic violence programs is being threatened at the state level.

The first source, funding for Domestic Violence Medical Advocacy programs, may be eliminated by the Department of Health.  This funding ensures that domestic violence advocates are available at hospitals and clinics to work with violence survivors as they come in.  Medical settings are often one of the few places where domestic violence survivors can safely call hotlines, undergo counseling or make a safety plan.

At the same time, a proposal has also been made to cut 9% of funding from the Victims of Crime Act.  While this seems like a small amount of funding, every penny is important at a time when women and families are already being turned away from shelters.

Through these cuts, 93,000 women will lose access to counseling, shelter, legal aid, public assistance, and many other services.

If you support these services, please reach out to Governor Corbett and to your local legislators right away. You can call Governor Corbett's office at 717-787-2500 or click here to find your local legislators.

Here is a script provided by WIT:

"My name is ___ and I'm calling as supporter of
Women In Transition, the only counseling agency for women dealing with domestic violence & substance abuse in Philadelphia. I'm calling because I'm outraged at the proposed cuts to domestic violence services through the recent budgetary actions."

"Statewide access to safety and support for DV victims is at serious risk due to more than a decade of no funding increases. In fact, DV services are funded with less dollars than they were in 2001. If this continues, there will be nowhere left for domestic violence victims to go."

"I urge the [Governor/Legislature] to increase the DV appropriation by $5 million dollars as recently suggested by the Senate."

"This will address these most recently announced funding cuts, keep statewide access in place and begin to address the more than 5000 victims whose needs were not able to met last year and had to be turned away."