Posted by bri piserchio
The Williamson Daily News
Julia Roberts Goad
Staff Writer
(EDITOR’S NOTE: A group of local groups and civic organizations have come
together to help address the issue of child poverty. The West Virginia Healthy
Kids and Families Coalition has created a list of the top ten issues that affect
children living in poverty in the state. The first five of those issues were:
healthcare for working families, family violence, child care costs, healthy
lifestyles and prison reform. The Daily News is running a series of articles to
address each of these five issues. This is the second of these articles)
The recent budget sequester in Washington seems to have cut funding to
programs that help the most vulnerable members of society. One group that may be
affected locally are victims of domestic violence.
The numbers speak for themselves.
On average, two domestic homicides occur monthly in West Virginia, a
statistic that has not changed over the last three decades. Data from the FBI’s
Supplemental Homicide Report indicates that West Virginia is 12th highest state
in the nation in the rate of domestic homicides among women.
According to the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, in 2010
14,880 domestic violence cases were filed in West Virginia Family Court, a third
of homicides in West Virginia are related to domestic violence and over two
thirds of the of women murdered in West Virginia are killed by a family or
household member.
In 2010, 12,661 domestic violence offenses were reported to law enforcement
in West Virginia.
Yet, Governor Tomblin has proposed to cut a line item in the state’s budget
that funds domestic violence shelters.
On any given day, licensed domestic violence programs in West Virginia
provide services to nearly 500 women, children and men.
Kim Ryan, Director of the Tug Valley Recovery Shelter, said that such a cut
would drastically affect the shelter’s ability to service people in Mingo and
Logan counties.
“We are the only shelter within 80 miles,” Ryan told the Daily News. “In
addition to offering a shelter to victims of domestic violence, we have
education on bullying and dating violence, we have court advocates, all types of
services. We are currently staffed 24 hours a day. If our funding is cut, I’m
afraid I will have to lay off employees, and we won’t be staffed all the
time.”
Ryan said the Governor’s budget has a line item which funds domestic violence
services. But Gov. Tomblin is considering $187,000 from that line item, which
would result in her budget losing $16,000. That is a big bite out of the Tug
Valley Recovery Shelter’s $512,000, Ryan said.
“There are also across the board cuts from the Department of Justice,” Ryan
said. “There is less money every year for non-profits and social services.”
She said that the bulk of the shelter’s operating budget comes from state and
federal grants, and that the remainder is raised through donations and
fundraisers, but that state of the economy is also affecting those income
sources.
“Our biggest fundraiser is our annual gift wrapping service at the Southside
Mall during the holidays,” Ryan said. “We usually make between $5,000 and $6,000
from that. This year, we actually lost money.”
Ryan, along with domestic violence activists across the state, are asking the
public to help.
“We are asking people to write letters, to call the Governor’s office,” she
said. “Ask him not to cut the domestic violence line item. I mean, look how much
money our government spends overseas. Our own people shouldn’t have to live
like this.”
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Williamson Daily News - Child poverty issue domestic violence
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