Operation: Safety Net

Domestic violence and sexual assault agencies across the country are in danger due to massive federal reductions in victims' services funding.

Earlier this year, the DOJ Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) removed all 2025 funding notices from their website, jeopardizing the future of domestic violence and sexual assault programs across the country — including ALC. Bipartisan lawmakers are pushing the DOJ to reinstate this funding, but it’s unclear whether they will succeed. Preliminary budget drafts indicate billions of dollars in additional human services funding cuts are on the horizon.

Most recently, the Justice Department has cancelled over $800M in funding for gun-violence prevention, sexual assault and domestic violence services, victim advocacy, and related grant programs. Attorney General Pam Bondi says there are more cuts to come, and nonprofits and human services programs around the country are bracing for the fallout. Many programs mentioned in the articles linked here are already suffering.

DOJ and HHS funding cuts, along with other federal changes, are effectively gutting the national safety net — making our most vulnerable citizens even more vulnerable to experiencing violence, abuse, homelessness, addiction, mental health crises, and more. Rural communities like Lake County stand to be disproportionally affected by these cuts.

ALC is pivoting and planning to make sure we can continue serving our clients uninterrupted as we have for over 40 years, but we can’t do this alone. We need your help to preserve victim/survivor services, and we need it now.

Please donate what you can. Every dollar helps, and we especially appreciate recurring monthly donations. Your donations go directly into our general operating fund with other folks' donations to help us respond to urgent client needs such as:

• $10 — Toiletries and hygiene items for a survivor staying in our safehouse, including essentials like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothbrush/toothpaste, and tampons
• $25 — Milk, eggs, and fresh produce for guests in our survivor safehouse, to supplement the shelf-stable items we receive from our local food pantry
• $60 — Mobile phone with 1 month of unlimited calling, texting, and data so a survivor can call for help, communicate with their kids' school, access medical care, find a job, and more
• $100 — One therapy session to help a survivor recover from the trauma of abuse/assault
• $150 — One-night hotel stay for safe shelter when our survivor safehouse is full
• $250 — Plane ticket for a survivor to relocate away from their abuser
• $500 — Rental assistance to prevent eviction or get a survivor settled in a new, safe home
• $1000 — Childcare for 1 month so a survivor can go to work knowing their children are safe

We also welcome larger donations from benefactors; if that's you, please contact us at advancement@advocatesoflakecounty.org.   

Please also contact your elected representatives and demand that they protect and support funding for gun violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, victims’ advocacy, and other essential programming. Resistbot and 5Calls are free apps that put you in direct contact with your reps by phone and in writing – with pre-made scripts built right in to help you tell your elected officials what matters most to you.

Thank you for standing with us — and with the survivors who rely on these critical services every day.