While demand increases for domestic-violence services, money declining
By Nick Claussen
September 29, 2008
My Sister’s Place has seen a significant increase in the demand for its services in the last few years, but at the same time funding for the Athens battered women’s shelter has decreased.
The shelter needs more money in its budget, and at times now is not able to take in all of the women and children who turn to it for help. The women and children all receive assistance, but they are not all able to stay at the shelter because at times there is not enough room.
Kate McGuckin, executive director of My Sister’s Place, said Thursday that the total annual budget for the facility is $502,000, which is not enough.
The budget includes funding from the local tax levy collected by the Athens, Hocking, Vinton 317 Board and disbursed to agencies in the county such as My Sister’s Place.
“That was flat-lined again this year. It’s been flat-lined for a number of years,” McGuckin said. She is happy the funding has not been decreased, but said that when expenses keep increasing and the funding stays flat, it’s similar to receiving a budget cut.
Earl Cecil, executive director of the Athens Hocking Vinton 317 Board, said Thursday that it’s getting increasingly more difficult to maintain even the flat-level funding to the county agencies it serves. The 317 Board also receives state funding for mental health, alcohol and drug services, in addition to the local levy funds.
“We view all the county agencies, including My Sister’s Place, as critical for the good health of our community,” Cecil said. At some point, he said, he hopes that the 317 Board can increase funding for My Sister’s Place and other local agencies, but he does not know when that might occur.
“We are very supportive and value what My Sister’s Place does,” Cecil said.
My Sister’s Place also receives state and federal grants, donations, Medicaid funding, a portion of the marriage license and divorce fees, and funding from agencies such as Athens County Department of Job and Family Services (DJFS).
Federal grant programs such as the Violence Against Women Act funding and the Family Violence Prevention and Services funding have been greatly reduced in recent years, McGuckin said. The funding from Athens County DJFS was also cut earlier this year, she added.
“Our safety net is just crumbling… the total safety net for social services,” McGuckin said.
And while funding for My Sister’s Place is decreasing, the operational costs are increasing along with the demand for services. Demand for residential services in particular has increased in the last eight months, McGuckin said.
“I think that would be symptomatic of the general economic condition of our community,” she said. Women are coming to the shelter with greater needs than in the past, and it often takes them longer to move into a safe environment.
MY SISTER’S PLACE SERVED 55 families during the fiscal year 2008, which ended on June 30. The shelter also served 172 clients in outreach programs. The shelter serves three counties (Athens, Hocking and Vinton), and had to close two of its three outreach offices two years ago because of a decrease in grant funding, McGuckin said.
With two of the outreach offices closed, many of the women in the three counties can’t get to Athens for services at the shelter, McGuckin said. And when they do, the shelter can’t always take them in, she added.
“For the year, we turned down 21 women and 26 children because we did not have space,” McGuckin reported. In the three-month period between April and June, My Sister’s Place turned down 15 women and 19 children for emergency shelter because all of the beds were full, she said.
The number of people staying at the shelter each year has been increasing, and the average length of stay is also increasing, partially because other social-service programs that used to be able to help these women and families are now gone, according to McGuckin. The average length of stay is 34 days, she said. The year before it was 21 days and the year before that it was 14 days.
“The people that we are seeing now, the needs are greater. They are going hungry. They have no transportation. They run out of fuel. They run out of cell-phone minutes. The cost of food is escalating,” McGuckin said. Many people also have little or no access to medical care, and their housing options are very limited, she added.
The shelter can provide crisis-intervention services to clients who are not saying at the shelter or working with outreach programs, and also can refer clients to other agencies, McGuckin said.
THE RECENT CAPITAL campaign to raise $60,000 for major renovation work on the shelter was successful, and many of the structural problems have been fixed, McGuckin said. The shelter does not have the funding to expand its facility so that it could take more clients. My Sister’s Place has 10 beds for the clients who stay there, she added.
The First Presbyterian Church of Athens has selected My Sister’s Place as an agency that it will support in its bicentennial campaign going on between now and September 2009, McGuckin said. The money from the campaign will go toward making badly needed repairs in the shelter kitchen.
“That’s an example of the kind of local support that we get, and it’s really gratifying,” McGuckin said, adding that she feels fortunate to have the shelter in a caring community where many people and organizations donate to the facility. The shelter has five full-time employees and 21 part-time workers.
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