Centers adjust to reduced funds

North Idaho organizations that help victims of domestic violence are rethinking their futures after taking serious losses to their budgets for this year.

The Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance distributed $125,000 less to North Idaho organizations this year than last and a total of $630,000 less statewide. The money it distributes through grants comes to Idaho from the Federal Victims of Crime grant, Federal Family Violence and Prevention grant, Idaho State Domestic Violence Account and the Idaho Batterer Treatment grant.

“The council warned us there were cuts,” said Linda Kincaid, director of the Coeur d’Alene Women’s Center. The council granted her center $190,947 this year, $97,760 less than last year. “It goes down every year, and the demand for our services has increased 300 percent since 2000.”

Post Falls OASIS – Officers and Advocates Sharing Intervention Services – took a $10,000 cut in funding to run two emergency shelters for women fleeing domestic violence, a counseling program with child care and support groups.

“It makes us tighten our belts a lot more,” said Lt. Greg McLean, OASIS program manager and a Post Falls police officer. “We have ideas, visions we have to put on hold.”

The Women’s Resource Center in Kellogg also is reeling from the latest funding announcements. The center’s grant dropped from $65,000 last year to $50,000 this year.

“We’re going to have to figure out a way to handle it,” said Betty Maxwell, center director. “This is not a large county for donations from foundations and businesses. People are wonderfully supportive, but they don’t have money, and I’m not comfortable asking them for it.”

The Shoshone County center primarily helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, but it also helps victims of other crimes. It operates a short-term emergency shelter and refers women to Coeur d’Alene for longer shelter needs. Three part-time employees work with Maxwell, the center’s only full-time employee. The budget cuts will prompt some new procedures at the center.

“I’m going to have to start screening and prioritize, and that’s unfortunate,” Maxwell said. “I will have to weigh and measure each call and limit services. It’s unfair to battered wives, but we’re losing resources left and right.”

Post Falls’ OASIS program will have to postpone adding a video security system to its safe houses, McLean said. OASIS works closely with the city police department. Post Falls police cars now are able to access images from video cameras posted throughout the city.

McLean said video cameras in the safe houses would allow police to see what’s happening in the house the moment one of the residents hits an alarm. The houses’ alarms ring in the police department.

“It would give us the ability to record what’s happening, see what’s happening as we respond,” he said. “But it’s something we’ll have to put on hold.”

OASIS pays to send victims of crime to counselors in the community, but the program received only $1,500 of the $5,000 it had hoped for, McLean said. It also received about a third of the money it needed for child care, he said. OASIS tries to provide child care for women while they’re in counseling or in support groups.

“We had to cut back tremendously,” McLean said. “When you don’t provide a service, it makes it difficult for a victim to put her life back in order.”

Cutbacks will even extend to supplies at the safe houses. McLean said the program received two-thirds of the $1,500 it needed.

OASIS receives about 2,000 calls a year. Last year, 300 women turned to the program for protection orders, counseling and other services.

“We’ll have to redefine our philosophy, the amount of services we can provide,” McLean said.

The Women’s Center in Coeur d’Alene already is altering its mission from triage to prevention. The center operates a 21-bed women’s shelter and crisis phone lines. It offers advocates to help crime victims through the court system and support in reshaping their lives.

“I’m really optimistic,” Kincaid said. “There are other areas we can go. We’re strong in laws, protection for people. We’ve trained law enforcement. I’m appalled that domestic violence is still around. We’re missing something.”

Kincaid, who took over as the Women’s Center director eight months ago, believes the budget cuts are an opportunity to try something different. Already, the Coeur d’Alene chapter of Soroptomists International helps the center with a counseling program for children of domestically violent families.

“We can go into prevention and definitely more education,” Kincaid said. “We’ll have to diversify services. I want to look at mentoring groups for men, women who are abusive. Things are different now. We need to look at how they’ve changed.”

Kincaid doesn’t plan to cut services, but she’ll trim the center’s wages for its 13 workers and cut back on benefits, she said.

“It’s tough. We ask our workers to do a highly responsible job,” she said. “Maybe for 10 minutes they might have somebody’s life in their hands, and their pay is so small.”

A thrift store the center opened six years ago will help with the money struggles. The store on Fourth Street takes in $3,000 to $5,000 each month, Kincaid said.

And it’s never needed shoppers as much as it does now.

“The money people spend here goes to the center. It stays in the community,” said Nadine McKenna, assistant manager at the thrift store. “Women at the shelter get vouchers and shop for what they need. It’s a good cause to work for.”