|
NOW-NYC's Letter to Speaker Quinn
September 16, 2010 Dear Speaker Quinn, The National Organization for Women-New York City urges the New York City Council to restore 100% of the funding it recently cut for critical citywide services for both victims of sexual violence and prevention efforts. It is apparent that the severity of the current cuts will in fact affect direct services and deal a devastating blow to the City’s efforts to end the epidemic of violence against women and girls. It has been demonstrated that violence against women, in particular, increases in times of economic duress. This is not the time to cut these services. At $332,500, this funding is pennies in the city’s
$63 billion budget, yet it stands to have a large impact at a time when violence is on the rise. We are alarmed that the city would so easily trade away its progress on preventing assault and helping victims of some of the most heinous physically and psychologically devastating attacks. Many who are served by the below agencies are some of the most marginalized New Yorkers, including sexually abused children, immigrants, and victims of commercial sexual exploitation. As it currently stands the budget cuts will force four major rape crisis and prevention organizations to lose a substantial portion of their funding, resulting in a loss of critical services. This includes: 1. The NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault will lose one-third of their total funding, after receiving city funding steadily for almost a decade. The organization is a NYC leader and go-to resource for victims of sexual assault. The cuts will decimate its budget for its advocacy work with immigrant groups in the South Bronx and the Lower East Side and for evidence-based sexual education of at-risk youth. 2. The St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Intervention Program in Manhattan provides the city’s only free treatment program for male survivors of sexual assault. The cuts will prevent its work in helping more than 300 men and adolescent victims of sexual violence every year. 3. The Kingsbridge Heights Community Center in the Bronx is the only long-term treatment program for sexually abused children in the city, and operates in a region of the city that is unarguably underserved. The New York Daily News recently reported that rape complaints and arrests for rape in the Bronx have increased by more than 12% each this year. 4. The Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention (SAVI) program will lose funding for its work to help victims of commercial sexual exploitation, just as the city is expanding its efforts to combat domestic and international sex trafficking within its borders. Law enforcement, prosecutors, and advocates across the city agree that we are only reaching a fraction of such victims, in great part, due to the fact that few services exist for these victims. The evidence seriously brings into question the city’s contention that these cuts will not result in a loss of any direct services. The cuts will have a devastating impact and will result in lost ground on building efforts to confront sexual violence. Someone is sexually assaulted in the United States every two minutes. A 2004 study in New York City found that an estimated one in four young women between the ages of 14 and 23 had experienced a forced sexual experience in the past year. If we want to make real progress on changing the culture of violence against women that prevails, we cannot afford to pit prevention against victim services. In fact, both efforts need to be expanded. NOW-NYC hopes that the city will choose to send the right message, one that does not turn its back on the populations who need help the most. Sincerely, Sonia Ossorio
Executive Director
NOW-NYC
|
