WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Tell Congress that a 40% cut to VOCA will be devastating and dangerous for survivors!
Resilience: Advocates for Ending Violence relies on VOCA funding to provide life-changing support and resources for local survivors in our community. With a $700 million cut to VOCA funding, victim support agencies may be forced to lay off staff, cut programs, or even worse, shut their doors. We invite you to read our blog about VOCA funding and the impact these cuts will have on our community.
What is VOCA?
The Victims of Crime Act’s (VOCA) Crime Victims Fund (CVF) is a special fund that doesn’t use taxpayer money. It’s funded with fines from federal convictions and certain criminal settlements. Each year, Congress decides how much money to release from this fund to help organizations like Resilience support victims/survivors. Appropriators decide how much is to be released from the CVF for VOCA grant funding. Because CVF deposits have been low for several years, many victim service agencies have or will experience major cuts to their VOCA funding.
What is happening?
The proposed President’s FY24 budget and the FY24 House and Senate CJS appropriations bills is a 40% cut, as compared to FY23. This is a $700 million cut in comparison to last year. States have already begun to implement significant cuts, with some cutting more than 60% in the current year alone. At this proposed funding level, thousands of victim service providers across the nation will be forced to lay off staff, cut programs, and/or shut their doors. The impact will fall hardest on the smallest programs, particularly programs in rural communities, low-income communities, and Communities of Color. Potentially millions of victims nationwide will lose access to lifesaving and life-sustaining child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, and other victim services. Without access to these critical services, the real-time impact will not only be felt by individuals and families, but also in communities nationwide.
How can you help?
We’re calling on you to take action! Let Congress know that victims in our community deserve to have access to healing support and to increase funding to victim service agencies. Here’s some helpful info:
- Find your two senators here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
- Find your representative here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
- You can also call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representatives’ and Senators’ offices.
- Tell Congress: “Please take action to prevent a devastating $700 million cut to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). Victims and victim service programs will suffer greatly unless Congress acts. We request Congress to allocate sufficient resources to maintain consistent funding for VOCA in the final FY24 budget, without reducing funding for other programs that victims and survivors depend on.”
