Being asked to do more with less: Local victim services agency braces for $450K shortfall in state, federal funding

By Valorie Brecht, Tribune Record Gleaner The Personal Development Center (PDC) – Orenda Center in Marshfield has served victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault in Clark County, western Marathon County and northern Wood County for more than 50 years, including through crisis response, emergency shelter, medical and legal advocacy, access to community resources and much more. PDC staff members said they have seen a consistent increase in the number of people seeking services over the past handful of years. As an example, PDC had 1,125 people take part in its programs and services in 2023, up from 746 in 2022.

Now, the agency’s work is being jeopardized, as PDC will see a substantial reduction in next year’s budget due to two funding cuts, one state and one federal.

One major funding source is the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), which PDC has been receiving funding from for over 40 years.

“DCF was at a point where they needed to change how they allocated funds throughout the state. They were required to go through a competitive cycle and to analyze how they were going to distribute the funds to victim service agencies throughout the state,” said PDC Executive Director Renee Schulz.

“As a result of all of their strategic planning and such, they came up with funding distribution by region.”

Each region of the state was allocated a certain dollar amount, and the local programs within the region had to compete against each other for a portion of the regional pot of money.

“The end result of that was that the northern and western region of the state got cut pretty significantly with the amount of money in the pot as a whole, and that the agencies have to compete (for). And it’s really resulted in a significant loss in funding for victim service providers,” said Schulz.

“A lot of the funding was kind of concentrated to areas where they have large underserved populations or more significant BIPOC (black, Indigenous or people of color) communities, and so we ended up seeing a lot of funding go toward the southern part of the state. So everything from the center of the state up, the funding has been substantially reduced.”

For PDC, that means starting Jan. 1, the agency will experience a roughly $125,000 per year reduction in DCF funding.

Another funding stream being slashed is the VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funding that comes from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime.

“There’s been a lot of talk federally about cuts to that pot of money,” said Schulz.

VOCA funding is not taxpayer dollars; it comes from fines and forfeitures paid in large, corporate cases. The money is allocated to states to redistribute to local victim service providers. Victim assistance grants are provided to private and public agencies to support direct services to victims of violent crime. Services provided under this program include safety planning, community service referrals, counseling, crisis intervention and legal advocacy.

“That VOCA pot of money has been on shaky ground for a while. It all depends on the administration and what types of corporate-level crimes are prosecuted, and if there’s any kind of plea deals and any kind of financial forfeiture that would go into that pot of money,” said Schulz.

“So we’ve been hearing for several years that that pot of money is kind of in jeopardy. And at a federal level, I know there’s been talk of federal fixes as to how to kind of bring additional sources of revenue into that pot to distribute to victim services agencies. But we’re now at a point where our kind of piece of that pot is distributed to us through the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ). So DOJ has received those funds and we would be recipients of those through a competitive grant process, so through a VOCA grant.”

For many years, PDC has been the recipient of an annual $600,000 VOCA grant, which has been used to support all of PDC’s adult and youth advocacy services, shelter services, and visitation and exchange program. It is one of PDC’s largest sources of funding.

“Now, after they’ve gone through kind of a re-evaluation of the revenue that’s available to distribute, beginning Oct. 1, they are having a new competitive grant process, which they released RFPs (requests for proposal) right now, and they have put a cap on the money any one program or agency can receive. And that cap is $250,000. And that’s if we are successful in that competitive grant process to get that full $250,000. If they were to give that full $250,000 out to everyone that applies, they would not even be able to fund half of the victim service agencies in the state. So there are a number of victim service providers like PDC and others that are not going to get that full $250,000 per year allocation,” explained Schulz.

“So the actual dollar amount we will receive, at this point, is unknown. I know we will be applying for that full $250,000. If successful, that’s $350,000 less that we will be receiving starting Oct. 1.”

Between the reduction in DCF funding and VOCA funding, PDC is facing a $450,000 loss in annual revenue, at minimum.

Schulz said the agency has been looking for alternative funding sources, including local and regional grant opportunities, but recognizes the gravity of the situation unless something majorly changes.

“There are ways we can get creative and find other sources of revenue to help backfill, but there really isn’t anything that can make up for that significant of a loss in revenue,” she said.

“There’s been some recent developments. There’s been new legislation that Gov. (Tony) Evers has signed into law that has increased the level of funding for victim services providers and child advocacy services. And that money is going to be distributed through the DOJ. So that is definitely a success and will certainly help. But what that actually means and how we go about accessing it, we don’t know at this point. We do know that the amount of money is, although very beneficial, it’s not going to come close to covering the loss of what we’re experiencing from VOCA.”

When it comes to the need for funding, “we’re still in a pretty critical place,” Schulz concluded.

She said PDC certainly is not alone in this situation, and people should anticipate that the services available to victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and trafficking could look very different by the end of this year, and even more so at the start of next year.

“If we’re not able to find ways to make up that loss in revenue, it will likely result in a loss of programming and services, and a reduction of staff,” said Schulz. “So we’ve had to have those hard conversations with staff and we’re all aware of the work laid out in front of us and how critical of a time this is.”

Schulz urged the public to contact their legislators at the state and federal level, and let them know how important victim service providers are to the wellbeing of the community and of the pressing need to replenish funding. Schulz also encouraged individuals to check out End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin (EndAbuse-WI.org) and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault (wcasa.org), two statewide coalitions that advocate and lobby for victim services agencies at the state and federal level.

“It’s alarming when you see the number of people in need and the ones that we’re able to serve every year, and those numbers just keep increasing each year… It’s even more alarming when we keep seeing the increase in need and know that we are facing a situation where we may have to make decisions about what programs and services we’ll no longer be able to provide.

“We see what the need is and how many people have benefitted from services, and how many children we’ve been able to keep safe because of the services we are able to provide, and if we have to back away from providing those, there’s going to be people that are not going to have their needs met and they’re not going to be able to find safety for themselves and their kids.”

Fundraiser

PDC plans to continue to outreach to the community and seek individual and business donations to support the work that it does. The agency plans to host its second annual “Kick Out Domestic Abuse Family Fun Day” at the Granton Community Park on May 18 as a fundraiser. The event will include kickball and cornhole tournaments, raffle baskets, food, bouncy houses, a DJ and more. For more information or to sign up a team, go to pdcmarshfield.org or call 715-384-2971.