HopeHouse

UPDATE 3/8/10 - We learned late last week that state funding for domestic violence services has been restored. $2.375 million has been put back in the budget. For details, please read the latest From the Front Line of Domestic Violence blog by Hope House CEO MaryAnne Metheny.

UPDATE 2/24/10 - Your activism, calls and contacts with Missouri Representatives is putting the importance of maintaining state domestic violence funding in the public spotlight.  Today the Kansas City Star published the editorial cartoon, below, which confirms that. KEEP MAKING THE CALLS, SENDING E-MAILS, SPREADING THE WORD TO OTHERS. YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE—KEEP IT GOING!

THE BACKSTORY 2/17/10 - Hope House learned that late Tuesday afternoon the House Appropriations Committee for Social Services cut state Domestic Violence Services funding by 50 percent—$2,375,000! Current funding is $4.75 million. Domestic Violence Services funding was one of the only Department of Social Services programs cut by 50 percent. For Hope House, this translates to a $57,585 reduction for shelter services.

This decision will have a devastating impact on the victims of domestic violence that we serve every day. This money is for core services, it pays for the life saving services we offer in shelter. We will turn away even more women and children then ever before. Last year we turned away 1,331women because we were full. That number is more than the 1,228 women and children we were able serve in shelter last year. With more cuts to funding, the number turned away will only grow.

The headline for The Examiner on Friday, February 12^th read “Harbour guilty in beating death. Lynn Kelly was strangled and bludgeoned with baseball bat”.  Demetrius Harbour was Lynn Kelly’s boyfriend. With this dramatic and deep funding cut, we know the impact will be more lives like Lynn’s lost due to domestic violence.

This extraordinary cut to the Governor’s budget—where no cuts were proposed—came as a surprise in an amendment by Committee Chairman Rep. David Sater (R-Cassville). The Chairman’s amendment included nearly $32 million in reductions to Department of Social Services programs and services for Fiscal Year 2011. Committee Chairman Rep. David Sater said the budget had to be cut by reductions in services that are “not essential” and “not critical.” Statements like this are unacceptable. Women and children’s lives are essential and critical, and we need your help in stopping this drastic action from going forward.

All members of the Missouri House of Representatives need to hear from those who work in domestic violence programs, who support those programs, and who are committed to ending violence against women. Our Representatives need to hear the impact these cuts will have on programs and that the proposed cuts will mean more women and children will die because they could not access life saving services.

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

Go to www.moga.mo.gov and click on “Legislator Look-up”. Enter your zip code to find your legislator.

For an alphabetical listing of Representatives, go to http://www.house.mo.gov/member.aspx