Giving Compass' Take:
- Jasmine Mithani reports on survivors' call for the state of California to fund domestic violence services in the wake of a decrease in federal funding.
- What is the role of funders in ensuring domestic violence survivors have continued access to resources as domestic violence services are defunded at the federal level?
- Search for a nonprofit focused on supporting domestic violence survivors.
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“Before I say anything, I want everyone here to take a moment and think about someone finally reaching out for help and there’s no one here to answer,” Jazz LedBetter said to a crowd of over 250 survivors of abuse and advocates against domestic violence and sexual assault about the urgent need to fund domestic violence services.
LedBetter was speaking on the lawn of the state Capitol as part of an effort to press California lawmakers to include $100 million in the state budget that would cover a gap in money for domestic violence and sexual assault services caused by a drop in federal funds. The push comes as the Trump administration has prematurely terminated grants to domestic violence organizations, delayed payouts of over $200 million from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and tried to block assistance to trans and immigrant survivors.
LedBetter is a survivor of sex trafficking and spoke about how Woman Haven, a domestic violence services organization just north of the California-Mexico border, helped her heal, demonstrating the need to fund domestic violence services.
“I didn’t have stability, I didn’t have answers, and I didn’t have a clue what the future held, but I had access to something that changed everything: I had access to a shelter, not just a place to stay, but a safe place to breathe, to think, to begin again,” she said.
Over 4,800 Californians were assisted by domestic violence services over a single day in 2025, according to data from the National Network to End Domestic Violence. But 605 requests for help went unanswered due to limited resources, showing the importance of funding domestic violence services.
The crowd assembled before LedBetter called on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to step up to support survivors where the federal government has let them down. They emphasized that they weren’t seeking additional funding but rather coverage for a drop in federal dollars from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). The Crime Victims Fund created by VOCA pulls from white-collar crime settlements instead of taxpayer dollars, but those prosecutions have been declining for a decade, leading the fund to decrease.
Read the full article about funding domestic violence services by Jasmine Mithani at The 19th.