The elimination of some federal funding opportunities has left Ohio’s activists working to offer supports for survivors of sexual and domestic abuse apprehensive about their financing sources, but they remain hopeful for additional state help.
Advocacy groups were informed at the start of February that the federal Office on Violence Against Women’s 2025 Notices of Funding Opportunities website had been taken down, and applicants were instructed to halt any ongoing submissions.
The action follows actions taken by the White House to block grants and other funding sources on a wide range of issues. A judge temporarily halted a freeze on grants, loans, and other financing that may have affected local organizations that deal with housing, poverty, health care, and other concerns after lawsuits were filed.
Following the announcement of federal funding, leaders of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence contacted supporters, warning that a sudden cutoff would jeopardize vital programs that offer safety, healing, and justice to victims of dating violence, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and stalking.
According to the group’s email, survivors and the organizations that assist them face risk and uncertainty in the absence of these crucial monies. Every financial delay puts lives in danger, regardless of how long-term the problem is.
Public Policy Director Emily Gemar said the alliance’s main role is to provide training and technical support to the state’s 36 rape crisis centers.
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According to Gemar, the coalition is the only state coalition that offers direct shelter to survivors in need and has a separate legal clinic in addition to its other services.
The legal clinic, which enables survivors to have an advocate in court with them and someone who can provide information on legal alternatives and crime victim rights, is maintained with funding from both the federal and state levels. Additionally, the funding maintains an emergency room response team and a 24/7 hotline response team for survivors in need of medical resource assistance or forensic examinations.
According to Gemar, our advocates wear several hats and must be specialists in the criminal justice system, the gathering of medical evidence, and the social services sector.
As recommended by Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive budget plan, the alliance is grateful for state funding through a rape crisis center line item in the budget, which has maintained $15.3 million year in 2024 and 2025.
However, as expenses have increased over time, organizations such as the Alliance have had to use that line item simply to maintain the existence of rape crisis centers.
According to Gemar, these state rape crisis funds usually don’t complete our agencies. In reality, these are only steps to maintain facilities’ staffing levels and keep doors open.
The group’s 2023 annual report states that 90 cents of every dollar received by the organization goes toward survivor services, with the remaining 10 cents going toward administrative and development expenses.
Therefore, state funding is even more important for Gemar and the other advocates because of the uncertainty at the federal level.
According to Gemar, “a reduction in funding will significantly affect our capacity to deliver critical services that survivors depend on.” Any delay or uncertainty has an effect on a rather broad variety of services.
Domestic abuse advocacy organizations are not accustomed to requesting more funding.
According to Mary O. Doherty, executive director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, “we’re advocating for more funding every budget year, every year that the state deals with its operating budget.”
Funding for the network’s 76 member programs—58 of which are shelters—comes from the state attorney general’s office, some donations, and the Office of Violence Against Women. This completes the network’s annual budget of $10.6 million.
Although funding for the network member program has not been reduced, O Doherty stated that they are closely monitoring the situation.
Our initiatives depend on federal funds, therefore it would be disastrous, she said. Our organizations would be crippled by drastic cuts.
The network programs already suffered significant losses from the Victims of Crime Act in 2019, 2020, and 2021, which is another reason for the funding instability. O Doherty reported that more than $200,000 in funding was reduced from one of its biggest non-residential programs for domestic violence in 2019.
More than 127,000 survivors got housing, support groups, legal representation, transportation, and other resources, according to a Dec. 2024 report from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network. As part of their member services, 3,743 children and almost 9,700 survivors were sheltered. However, the report states that over 8,000 additional survivors were denied access because of inadequate capacity.
Like the sexual violence alliance, most of the funding received by the domestic violence network is used for support staff, according to O Doherty. In fiscal year 2024, the network used funds from budget line-items for hiring and service capacity increases, with 82% of the member programs telling the network that the funds allowed them to keep staff who might have been eliminated by funding cuts.
But the funding Ohio gives to its domestic violence advocates doesn t compare to surrounding states, as O Doherty pointed out. The ODVN analyzed the per-capita state support in Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Indiana.
Kentucky came in with the highest at $3.06 per person in spending, followed by Michigan at $2.39 in per-capita spending. Pennsylvania spends $1.71 per-capita, West Virginia has a per-person funding rate of $1.41 and Indiana comes in at $1.31 per person.
Ohio s per-capita spending was reported at 85 cents.
Along with the rape crisis center line-item in DeWine s budget proposal, he recommended maintaining the domestic violence programs line item at $20 million over the biennium, the same amount as was budgeted for 2025, but a slight increase from previous years. A domestic violence shelter line item has a recommendation of $50,000 each year for the next two years, unchanged from previous years.
O Doherty and fellow advocates want to see the $10 million per year line-item increased, hopefully to double the current rate.
Our efforts have been focused on getting those funds increased, O Doherty said. If the funding from the federal government looks uncertain, maybe that will help us.
The executive budget proposal is currently in the hands of the Ohio House, who will create a budget draft of its own before the Ohio Senate considers the operational spending of the state. The two chambers will then reconcile their drafts with the governor s before creating a unified document. The budget must be signed by the governor by July 1.
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