The Athens County Sheriff’s Office, Athens Police Department and My Sister’s Place have recently been denied grant funding for programs benefiting survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse, but are still pushing forward
Local law enforcement and non-profit agencies have cultivated change through raising awareness on subjects such as domestic violence and sexual assault.
Unfortunately, the occasional absence of such awareness programs and workshops that would benefit survivors, students, residents and employees has boiled down to a lack of grant funding.
For example, the Athens Police Department sought funding through the federal Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant in November for a two-day advanced sexual assault investigation class, which half the department would have attended in May, according to a previous Post report.
That $20,000 grant — of which APD would have had to match $2,000 — was recently denied to the department. The program would have included an advocacy component to focus on better investigating sexual assaults.
However, APD Chief Tom Pyle said he’s not remotely close to giving up on programs that would assist survivors of sexual assault. His officers will still take online courses through the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, encouraging a closer working environment with advocacy groups and acting sensitively with survivors of sexual assault.
“Our grant wasn’t denied because it’s a bad idea,” Pyle said. “Our grant was denied because there’s other money out there to earmark for this.”
So, Pyle is drafting a letter to the state’s office of criminal justice services to request possible “overflow funding” for the training.
“The problem is ... funding is not available until next year, and I want to get the training this year,” he said. “I don’t typically give up on things when they pop up on my radar.”
The Athens County Sheriff’s Office was also denied the $60,000 VAWA grant last year.
Stacy Crook, the sole female responder for the sheriff’s office as the domestic violence coordinator, has been impacted by the denial of the grant.
“We were able to secure the funding through the commissioner’s office to keep our domestic violence advocate working,” Sheriff Rodney Smith said.
The funding for Crook’s position came out of the county’s general fund, Smith said.
“There have been times where a domestic violence grant had not been approved for various reasons,” Smith said. “All we can do is continue to apply for the grant.”
My Sister’s Place, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse, recently saw a large chunk cut out of its annually-applied for Violence Against Women Act grant, which is funded through the OCJS.
Though Executive Director Kelly Cooke said “most of the money” was received, the shelter was awarded $12,000 less than what they had asked for. Because the grant funds the shelter’s clinical staff, they were forced to lay off a part-time counselor.
“I called to ask why that happened, because we’ve received (the VAWA grant) for a number of years,” Cooke said. “I was told that (the OCJS) received a cut from basically the federal to the state level, so the state as a whole received less.”
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