Victim service agencies are sounding the alarm bell. A large pot of federal funds has been cut in half over the last 10 years— and organizations across the nation are feeling the pinch.
Just one example; Child Advocacy Centers help local agencies investigate child abuse cases.
“Instead of kids going all over the county, being interviewed by law enforcement in this building, and child welfare over here, and the medical social worker at the hospital—“ described Chris Kirchner, executive director of Child Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, "They all come together under one roof and do the investigation collaboratively.”
The centers also coordinate medical appointments and provide therapy.
“Government agencies are interested in the investigations and forensics, but the most critical thing we do is the therapy. Helping that child heal from their trauma,” said Kirchner.
The centers run on a research backed model— but many across the state, and the nation, are at risk of closing their doors.
“Pennsylvania has 40 centers. Each year, the state allocates $2 million to the centers. So that is about $47,000 a year for each center,” said Kirchner. "Then a center often gets support from its local county Children and Youth Services department. Then the third biggest funding source for many is VOCA."
The Victim Of Crime Act is a pot of money in the federal government that gets distributed to all of the states, where state agencies then distribute the money to local victim service agencies.
The grants are often competitive. Right now, 17 of Pennsylvania’s 40 CAC’s get VOCA funds. In Bradford county, the grant makes up around 25% of the yearly budget of $340,000.
VOCA is funded by fines from federal prosecution of specific corporate crimes. What started as a small pot of money was growing steadily over the years— until 2018.
The federal government significantly reduced how much it prosecuted the crimes that fund VOCA. In turn,
“Funds going into VOCA decreased significantly,” said Kirchner.
For example, in 2015 (before a few notable court cases with fines in the millions and billions ballooned the fund), Pennsylvania got $77 million dollars from VOCA. In 2024, they are expected to only get $29 million. Last year, Pennsylvania agencies experienced an average 5% cut in the federal funds.
“With that funding cut, we had about a $5,000 decrease or so. We were able to make that up with fund raising,” said Brittney Mink, executive director for the Bradford County Children’s Advocacy Center. "But when you're already, you know, at your budget and needing to fund raise money for other items, that's kind of where it becomes an issue and a problem.”
There was a new funding source added to VOCA in 2021 as lawmakers recognized the severity of the situation. But the increase of which federal fines went into the pot of money did not make as significant of a dent on the decrease as expected.
Advocates have proposed another solution; transferring money over from the False Claims Act. This established a fund for if anyone makes a false claim against the U.S. Government, they must pay the fees and an additional penalty.
“It's not an increase in taxes. The funds are already there. It will not change anything about who gets reimbursed if there is a false claim act,” said Kirchner. “If somebody's a whistle blower, they might get compensated. If someone was defrauded, they might get compensated. But the fines that are collected are much greater than those payouts."
To get funding to victim service groups before they go bankrupt, Congress would have to pass a bill approving the transfers by October 1.
“They're coming to us on their worst day of their lives,” said Mink. “Needing the services that are critical to their healing, not only as a child, but as to be moving into adulthood.”