If the partial federal government shutdown drags into the end of next week, advocates for local survivors of domestic violence say critical services will be in danger.
Willow Domestic Violence Center executive director Meaghan deChateauview says the organization is still able to submit claims to have their costs reimbursed until January 18.
"And at that point, if the budget is not passed and we do not reinstate the government, then we could see a loss of some critical programs that we provide here,” she said. “The impact of this loss of funding could be significant across the county to domestic violence victims."
Willow may have to rely on private donations and its endowment fund to provide gap funding for probation officers who hold abusers accountable and protect victims, and for attorneys from the Legal Aid Society of Rochester who help abuse survivors with a range of legal matters including child custody, housing, and divorce proceedings.
deChateauview says a continued shutdown would also trigger a ripple effect from other agencies that support Willow, such as Food Link, which provides 70,000 meals year for residents of Willow's emergency shelter.
"When you talk about survivors of domestic violence that are going through such trauma - to be able to support them and provide what they need - to have any threat to that is really scary for us. I don't, at this point, have a lot of hope that it's going to come back together soon enough for us to not see a significant impact to our services."
Even if an agreement was reached today to end the shutdown, deChateauview says there would already be a lag in federal funding.
"A couple of years ago we experienced this with our court program. We were able to provide funding for that staff member through a grant from a private foundation locally, which was incredible. We're looking to that kind of solution this time as well, looking for sources other than the government to try to keep our doors open."
Willow Domestic Violence Center gets roughly a two thirds of its annual budget, some $2.3 million, through the federal Violence Against Women Act. The rest of the nonprofit's funds come from grants and private donations.
