guess what's not getting funding - battered women's shelters

[ensho]

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3925


Violence Funds Not Sheltered From Budget Cuts


Women's safety advocates called on Congress Wednesday to hike funding for the nation's domestic violence shelters, which are being forced to scale back services or eliminate them altogether due to the ailing economy.

"During these grim economic times, when shelters are struggling mightily to do more with less and serve a population in great need, maintaining and expanding core state and federal funding for these emergency shelters becomes even more essential," said Anne Menard, director of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence in Harrisburg, Pa.

Menard spoke Wednesday at a news conference marking the release of a study showing the effectiveness of shelters in meeting survivors' needs, which she and other advocates plan to use in a campaign to lobby lawmakers for more money for shelters.

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Congress is currently authorized to spend up to $175 million a year for the program. But the actual allocation of federal dollars is subject to a congressional vote, and lawmakers last year set aside $123 million; over $50 million less than was approved. That was a slight cut from fiscal 2007, when Congress spent $125 million on the program.

Women's safety advocates also want Congress to fully fund the Violence Against Women Act, a broader anti-violence law originally passed in 1994 that provides some funds for domestic violence shelters but also sets aside money for a wide range of other services relating to sexual and domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.

-snip-

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, chair of the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues, a bipartisan group of female lawmakers in the House, says she will push for more money for women's safety this year.

"We know that the Family Violence Prevention Services Act needs adequate funding; their shelters are considered emergency rooms," she said. And the "reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is up in 2010, and we want to be ready for that, ensuring that it's a priority."

Fully functioning shelters are needed now more than ever, Schakowsky added.

"When people are under financial stress, when men lose their jobs, and women too, it just increases the stress and the conflict at home," she said in a recent interview. "So we have to be looking long and hard at funding for those kinds of programs."
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forever thank you Jan

[YOY]

1. I'm sure they were not purposefully overlooked.

n.t.

[flvegan]

2. Considering one of the primary "issues" between a couple may be financial

in these times, battered women's shelters likely need MORE funding, not funding cuts. This is of course strictly speaking of a male/female couple.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

3. Get In Line And Join The List With The Gazillion Other Things Being Hit By The Economy

right now.

And your title is all sorts of misleading. It IS being funded. It just isn't being funded as fully as some would like.

[Terran]

4. There's this in the Stimulus Bill, however...

STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES
OFFICE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PREVENTION AND PROSECUTION PROGRAMS

For an additional amount for "Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Programs", $225,000,000 for grants to combat violence against women, as authorized by part T of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796gg et seq.): Provided, That, $50,000,000 shall be for transitional housing assistance grants for victuns of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault as authorized by section 40299 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-322).