Since federal financing runs dry, there is a risk of victims of CT crime of reductions

Community organizations of Connecticut, which work with survivors of crime, are based on programming cuts as sources for federal funds that support their work.

Dozens of organizations that work together with surviving domestic violence, child abuse, sexual violence and human trafficking are financially supported by the fund for crime victims, a federal program that collects and redistributes the punishments and fines from federal criminal convictions.

In recent years, Connecticut has complemented its share with the auxiliary fee of Federal Covid-199, since the remaining amount has decreased in this fund. Now these funds will go out.

The amount of money in the crimes fund, which has steadily declined in the framework of the Federal Law of Fedal, sacrifices of Crimes (Voca) in recent years, granted $ 13.1 billion in 2017 to $ 3.3 billion in 2024. 2024.

Marc Pelka, deputy director of the office, informed the Connecticut Mirror in an e -mail that Connecticut's share of this grant has dropped from US dollars to 9 million US dollars in the past five years.

In order to maintain the funds at the required level, the state legislature prompted $ 48 million for the Coronavirus aid money of $ 48 million from 2023 to 2025. From the next year, when emergency aid has expired, the amount of available funds for victim service providers in Connectic in Connectic is expected by 29%, said Pelka.

Non -profit organizations that work with victims are already preparing for the change.

Gary Steck, the CEO of Wellmore Behavioral Health, which offers mental health services for children and drug abuse programs for adults, told CT Mirror in an e -mail that they are currently receiving 235,000 US dollars from the Office of victim services. He said you expect a reduction of 14% in your grant for the next year, which means that you have to reduce the number of children that you can serve from 400 to 345 annually.

“That is [a] A big hit immediately when you take it for traumatized children, but it may be worse, ”he said. The largest part of the financing, he said, go to the treatment of children and teenagers who are victims and their families.

Josiah Brown, the managing director of Connecticut Casa, told CT Mirror that the agency learned that the maximum grant she would receive would be the same annual amount that it would receive in the past three years: about $ 142,000. The problem with it, said Brown, is that the Casa program has grown considerably since 2022.

Casa, who stands for court officer on the court, commissioned volunteers for at least one and a half years to visit a single child or a number of siblings per month. The aim is to offer children who have experienced abuse and neglect in a system in which the social workers and lawyers assigned to these children are assigned to a consistent adult representative under large falling compensation.

Brown said that Casa had received Voca mean in the first year that it had three employees and worked in front of two dishes – Waterbury and New Haven. Since then, it has expanded to five full -time employees and a part -time employee who has worked in seven courts throughout the state. Brown said the organization asked the state of 250,000 US dollars this year, but he said it had not yet been included in the state budget.

“We serve a growing number of children who have high needs, said Brown.

Beth Hamilton from the CT Alliance to end sexual violence said that her organization receives 5.1 million US dollars at Voca Fund every year. This money goes to the nine community-based crisis programs of the Alliance-based sexual assault, which provides the action carried out around the clock of the agency and a variety of services, including individual advice, surviving self-help groups, support for living space and food uncertainty and a legal representative team.

Hamilton said she still does not know whether or how much the financing of the Alliance is shortened. She said that governor Ned Lamont had assigned $ 1.25 million in his budget proposal for the Allianz and hoped that it would be enough to compensate for this Any federal financing of the organization could lose.

For Hamilton, a deeper financing cuts could mean that the organization cannot operate its hotline around the clock or has enough people to accompany everyone who goes into the emergency room to receive a forensic collection of evidence.

She said her organization, which serves between 7,500 and 8,000 people annually, mainly helps people with low incomes who do not have many other ways to access services. “My real fear is that the more this word comes out about the change in the services, the less survivors they think that they have outlets to achieve support and receive support,” said Hamilton.

Meghan Scanlon from the Connecticut Coalition against domestic violence said that her organization had already planned to expect changes to Voca financing. CCADV received 8.5 million US dollars via Voca in the 2025 year and expects it to lose about a third of them.

The organization asked the state of Connecticut to assign 1 million US dollars to keep its hotline for domestic violence. Scanlon said you received around 25,000 calls to your hotline last year.

The rest of the federal funds that the organization receives go to 18 local agencies for domestic violence in the whole state, where Scanlon said they said CovER costs of employees who help the victims in security planning and obtaining living space and other services, as well as for those who support victims during the court proceedings.

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