As social service agencies face federal funding cuts, those involved in offering support for survivors of domestic violence say they have seen increasing calls for help.
Resilience Center of Franklin County Executive Director Amanda Sanderson explained that her organization, formerly called the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition (NELCWIT), had 497 walk-in appointments last year and served more than 2,500 people from July 1, 2024 to June 30 of this year.
“There’s definitely an uptick in need [for service],” Sanderson said. “We’re seeing a lot of restraining order requests and cases, and housing continues to be the No. 1 thing that people need in order to leave a domestic violence relationship or to recover from it — to move from housing instability into not just a transitional place, but a permanent place.”
Increases in reports of domestic violence, Sanderson said, can likely be partially attributed to service agencies’ growing outreach and education, social and economic factors, and a cultural return to toxic ideologies — a phenomenon she said has been exacerbated by social media.
“There’s a lot of social media personalities who are pushing agendas that promote domestic violence, that promote coercive control, that promote condoning acts of sexual violence, so we’re seeing this cultural mindset shift,” she said. “We need more support for rural survivors, because there’s less housing, because there’s less transportation, because there are fewer lawyers out here who can take on a domestic violence case.”
Sanderson added that escaping from a violent relationship in a rural area can be particularly challenging, as there are fewer places for a survivor to find support and small-town pressures make it harder to get out of an abusive relationship.
Due to its rural location, a sexual and domestic violence crisis center like the Resilience Center of Franklin County in Greenfield can feel both isolated and incredibly visible, according to Sanderson. This can make it more difficult for domestic violence survivors to flee from, or avoid, their abusers.
Despite growing incidents of domestic violence, Sanderson explained that the Department of Public Health, a state agency that serves as a primary source of funding for the Resilience Center of Franklin County, announced it will soon face roughly $7 million in cuts to services for domestic violence survivors — a move that, if applied evenly across the board of funded programs, would result in a 10% cut to each organization that the Department of Public Health supports.
Sanderson added that of the Resilience Center of Franklin County’s approximately $1.8 million budget, around $1.1 million comes from the Department of Public Health. She added that the federally funded Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, another agency from which her program receives funding, is facing a $10 million cut. Rising insurance costs, she said, are also eating up a large portion of the organization’s budget.
“Recently, we’ve gotten some anonymous donors, but those are things that we can’t always depend on. We’re really grateful for them, but if they go away, we have no way to easily replace those funds. We really depend on state funding. … If our agencies lose the state support, it would be very hard for us to raise $200,000 or $300,000 to cover the 10% to 20% decrease in funding,” she said, encouraging the community to advocate on the state and federal levels. “Reach out to your state and federal representatives and the governor, because I really think that the [staff at the] governor’s office, although they’re doing a lot of great things, aren’t aware of the ripple effect that they’re having on survivors and the most vulnerable.”
Other local organizations, such as The Heartwing Center in Turners Falls, have “indirectly” been hit by funding cuts from the Department of Public Health, according to the nonprofit’s Director of Programs and Development Mary King.
King explained that incidents of domestic violence ramped up during the pandemic and have not yet come back down. She noted that domestic violence is often under-reported by victims, so it’s difficult to ascertain just how rampant the issue runs.
“The pandemic was just a boiling point where people were under a lot of stress — they might have been quarantined, they might have been at home because their work was shut down,” King explained. “The lack of education and awareness out there has grown and it shouldn’t be that way. It should be that people become more educated, but actually there’s been a lack of education in public health and outreach that helps people understand, what is domestic violence.”
Becky Lockwood, director of the Salasin Project in Greenfield, said her organization, too, has seen an increase in those seeking domestic violence support services.
“We know that when there’s a recession, for example, domestic violence increases,” she said. “The housing crisis has really exacerbated domestic violence because it’s so hard to find an affordable place to go … and that’s huge, [because] it’s not easy to leave.”
To help raise awareness, a series of events are planned locally for National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which has been recognized since 1989. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, the Resiliency Center of Franklin County will host a survivor-led craft fair at Madhouse Multi-Arts, located at 479 Main St. in Greenfield. Additionally, the center will host a free-to-attend 50th anniversary celebration at Quonquont Farm in Whately on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 1 to 5 p.m. Later in the month, on Thursday, Oct. 23, the Franklin County/North Quabbin Domestic Violence Task Force will host “Light the Bridge” at Peskeompskut Park in Turners Falls from 5 to 7 p.m. There will be speakers, domestic violence resources, food and music. The Oct. 23 event will also involve members of the task force and the community holding purple lights, spanning across the length of the Turners Falls-Gill Bridge, in honor of those affected by domestic violence.
“We try and make our space as trauma-informed and full of light as possible for both our staff and our clients, because we know that they’ve been through a lot, and that’s why our name is the Resilience Center, because they’re so resilient — it’s incredible that they’re here and that they’re speaking to us and that they’re trying,” Sanderson said. “But it gets hard if more doors are closed than open. It’s very hard to help people continue to persevere.”