Last week, millions of dollars were awarded to groups fighting domestic violence in West Virginia. Staff members say the new dollars will help maintain services, but that longer-term financial concerns remain.
This year, the federal and state governments have allocated a cumulative $16,707,149 in grant funding to 82 West Virginia agencies, Gov. Jim Justice announced Oct. 10.
The federal portion of the funding comes from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which provides financial support to state and local programs addressing domestic violence.
Advocates say the money is sorely needed. Each year, West Virginia provides funding to domestic violence prevention nonprofits as part of the state budget. But the annual dollar amount has remained flat since 2009, even with rises in inflation, living costs and public demand.
Meanwhile, nonprofits say they have had to expand the services they provide. In part, this is to account for similar funding declines among other social services that people experiencing domestic violence may depend on.
Things have been especially tough since around 2019, Katie Spriggs told West Virginia Public Broadcasting on behalf of the Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center (EPEC) and the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WVCADV).
Spriggs serves as executive director of EPEC, an organization based in the Eastern Panhandle focused on domestic violence prevention and survivor support. It is part of WVCADV, a statewide network of domestic violence prevention groups.
In 2019, Congress reduced the amount of funding state and local domestic violence prevention groups receive nationwide.
Since then, the state government has provided supplemental funds for its programs, like the money announced by Justice last week. Spriggs said losing this annual support would be an “astronomical” cut to state domestic violence prevention efforts and survivor services.
“It would sever tons and tons of victim services more than just licensed domestic violence or licensed rape crisis centers,” she said. “It would cut [funding for] prosecuting attorneys, victim advocates, law enforcement … [and] legal aid.”
Justice’s office did not reply to a West Virginia Public Broadcasting email requesting clarification over how much funding came from the state. Regardless, Spriggs said advocates in West Virginia have called for an increase in VOCA funding on the national level.
“With VOCA money, … there is rarely a crime victim in the state that doesn’t at some point benefit from that money, even if they don’t report,” she said. “Those funds help people who not only navigate the justice system … but also those that don’t, that just seek support services.”
West Virginia’s VOCA grant program is run by the West Virginia Division of Administrative Services’ Justice and Community Services Section. The agency did not respond to email or phone call requests for comment on this story.
Meanwhile, Spriggs said she and her colleagues appreciate the support from state lawmakers. But she worries that depending on fluctuating federal dollars places them on shaky ground.
To address this, advocates have long called for a line-item funding increase in the state budget for domestic violence prevention groups. They say this would ensure changes in federal funding do not affect organizational capacity on the local level.
No such increase in funding has been approved in roughly 15 years.
Allocations from the West Virginia Legislature, like the state funding announced last week, have maintained current services, Spriggs said. But funding issues still persist, which prevent organizations like EPEC from expanding their programming or building up services already in place.
“It’s not an increase,” she said. “This is really, really important, because it doesn’t make anyone lose money. [But] there isn’t anyone gaining anything, so there is desperately still a need for increased state funding.”