Victims Services has received funding through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant and the State Victims Assistance Act (SVAA) grant since 1989. These grants are administered via the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
The VOCA grant pays for three full-time positions: Program Manager (Julie Broadwell), Program Coordinator (Kathy Mull), and Program Advocate (Alicia Boreman). In addition, VOCA provides rent, utilities, supplies and equipment for the program. The SVAA grant pays for organizational memberships, advertising, printing and telephone services.
A Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) stimulus grant enabled Victims Services to employ an Outreach Specialist (Stephanie Feldman) part-time from October 2009 to Aug. 2010. This position focused on reaching traditional college-aged students between the ages of 18-22 who were in violent dating relationships and/or had been sexually assaulted.
Victims Services was also awarded a 2009 Bowling Green Community Foundation mini-grant for the purchase of arts and crafts and reading books for children in childcare (while their mothers are in the Domestic Violence Support Group). In 2008, Victims Services received a previous Bowling Green Community Foundation mini-grant to support the Survivors Art Show.
A mini-grant offered through the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for a National Crime Victims Rights Week event was awarded to Victims Services and partner agencies in April 2011. The event was to commemorate the lives of Wood County women killed in intimate partner situations. The other agencies who participated with Victims Services were The Cocoon Shelter, Legal Aid of Western Ohio, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office, and Alicia’s Voice. In addition, a sister of one of the homicide victims was a fully participating member of the committee.
In Dec. 2009, Victims Services was asked to be a partner with the Wood County Common Pleas Court Security Department on a grant being submitted for judicial training. This grant was out of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), though the U.S. Department of Justice. One requirement of the grant was for the court entity submitting the grant to collaborate with a victim assistance organization. This grant was awarded in Oct. 2010 and a Training Coordinator hired in Dec. 2010. Victims Services serves as a consultant to this grant which has as its goal to provide a series of 7 trainings to professionals on domestic violence and sexual assault topics.
