A community-run program for victims of domestic abuse has run out of money in the face of no state budget.
The Peoria County Family Justice Center needs temporary funding until its annual state grant is up for renewal, on January 1, 2016. This year's grant expired on July 31. In the meantime, other community partners, the Center for Prevention of Abuse, the County Sheriff, the State's Attorney and the Peoria Police Department, have stepped in.
The Center for Prevention of Abuse says the Family Justice Center needs about $140,000 to cover staffing and operational costs for the remainder of this year. The multi-disciplinary group brings together police, social workers and advocates so a victims can find sanctuary in one place.
Center for Prevention of Abuse Associate Executive Director Kevin Nowlan says without the funds, the Justice Center won’t be able to connect victims of abuse to services as quickly.
“We wouldn’t be able to have the kind of coordination that takes place between the state’s attorney, our advocate, the sheriff, the city police," Nowlan said. "It would make the process a little more difficult.”
Nowlan says it's important to bring resources together quickly, so victims don’t feel hopeless and return to an abusive situation.
“It makes it more likely that individual says ‘this is too hard, he was right, I can’t do this, I can’t live without him, so I go back to him.”
A Peoria County committee will discuss temporary funding for the Center at its meeting later this month.