MONROE — Victim services throughout the nation are in risk of major funding losses, and the United States Senate will be voting soon to decide their fate.
Victim service providers offer support to victims of crime. The types services offered can span from mental health counseling to court preparation and safety planning.
Though services will often go unnoticed by individuals in the community until they themselves fall victim to a crime, Green County alone has many organizations providing support to crime victims.
The Sexual Assault Recovery Program, Green County Child Advocacy Center and Green Haven Family Advocates in Monroe are just a few of the social service organizations bringing victims back to their feet in the county.
For many victim services, including Green County’s, the primary source of funding is the Crime Victims Fund from VOCA state victim assistance grants, which faces a $1.1 billion cut in the FY21 Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
While cuts and fluctuations in grant funding for victim services are nothing new, the FY21 cut is at a level that has not been seen before and could be detrimental to victim services throughout the country, Kelsey Hood of Wisconsin Sexual Assault Recovery Program said. Most of the CVF’s funds come from deposits from criminal fines, so the funding traditionally fluctuates between years.
“While this is always something that’s been monitored and the fluctuations have been monitored, they’ve essentially been storms that could be weathered but this reduction is something that will drastically change, if not close victim services across the nation,” she said.
In their concern, SARP is not alone.
“VOCA is the primary funding source for just about everything that we do here,” Stephanie King of the Green County Child Advocacy Center said. VOCA funding allowed the CAC to expand services to children in the county who have been victims of crime, abuse or neglect.
“VOCA isn’t funded by taxpayer dollars,” King said. “It’s really important that we are focusing on the fix of VOCA so that VOCA funding is sustainable and around for the future of children.”
Funding for VOCA has played a substantial roll in the growth and development of both SARP and the CAC in recent years.
“VOCA has really allowed us to get comprehensive mental health services for kids and insurance isn’t attached to it,” she said. “Sometimes with insurance, there are limits that are put on the number of appointments that are allowed, there are barriers that may prolong the process, but VOCA really allows the provider to focus on the treatment of the child and ensure that there’s no barriers or issues in making sure that that child gets services.”
King is concerned that a cut to funding could mean delays in services for those who need them.
H.R. 1652
Recognizing the risk of a lapse of victim services funding, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin worked with Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to create H.R. 1652.
“VOCA is a nonpartisan issue,” King said. “It impacts everybody, there’s no specific type of person that could be a victim.”
H.R. 1652, or the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021 changes the funding formula for the CVF. The focus of the bill is to redirect fines of deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to the CVF.
The bill was introduced in the House March 8 and passed 384-38. It must now pass the Senate and be signed by the President to become law.
Hood and King each are encouraging members of the community to contact their representatives and let them know the importance of victim services.
Without the funding, even Monroe and Green County’s victim services risk seeing a delay in services or losing them entirely.
VOCA, Hood said, is part of what has allowed SARP in Green County to continue growing and finding new ways to serve the community.
“It allows us to use our local funding sources to do more community outreach and engagement and prevention,” Hood said. “We are encouraging individuals to contact their representatives and indicate to their representatives that we support services to victims and we want to see a fix to this VOCA crisis.”
King agreed, adding that the current situation is yet another opportunity to be a voice for the voiceless.
“Everything that’s happened with VOCA right now has really given us an opportunity to be a voice for the people who could be impacted and allow for communities to rally around the type of services that are available and ensure that they remain in the community,” King said.