Seven Northeast Wisconsin frontline victim service organizations teamed up to create the Victim Services Partnership. The collaborative effort is to help raise $3 million in three years to make up for a funding shortfall. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Facing millions of dollars in lost funding, a group of frontline victim service providers in Northeast Wisconsin are working together to help make ends meet.
Knowing there’s strength in numbers, the seven agencies formed an alliance called the Victim Services Partnership in hopes of raising $3 million to save all the services they offer.
With major budget cuts on the federal level, the providers are now collaborating on fundraising. They are:
- Brown County Victim Witness Office
- Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin
- Golden House
- Rainbow House
- Violence Intervention Project
- We All Rise: African American Resource Center
- Wise Women Gathering Place
“All of our agencies were facing cuts to our grant awards, the Victim of Crime Act. The state of Wisconsin allocation went from over $40 million to about $13 million, so victim service agencies across the state were facing major cuts.” said Holli Fisher with Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin.
Collectively, the seven organizations are facing a nearly $3 million funding shortfall.
“That means that there could be vital cuts to programming that is instrumental to ensuring victims are receiving the services they need, and that could mean cutting advocacy,” said Meika Burnikel with Golden House. “It’s really important that we don’t lose those services, including shelter.
Natalie Hayden understands firsthand the importance of victim services programs.
“I would probably be in a continued cycle,” she said. “My daughter would be experiencing and witnessing her parents in an unhealthy toxic relationship. I could possibly be dead. I could possibly be in jail.”
An abuse survivor who likes to call herself a thriver, Hayden relied on many of the services that are now at risk of being cut when she left an abusive relationship. The services were not only impactful on her, but also her daughter — and the dozens of people touched by the organizations that make up the Victim Services Partnership.
“They offer a beacon of light. It is like a North Star. It is like a place of reference to say, ‘Hey, this is safe. This is where you can go. This is how we can walk you through.’ And they hold your hand as long as they need to. It’s nothing forceful, but it was exactly what me and my daughter needed to help us get to where we are today,” added Hayden.
Which is why the organizations are hoping the community will step up to help them, so they can continue helping those in need.
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