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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact:
Rita
Smith
Executive Director
National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence (NCADV)
1120 Lincoln St., Ste
1603
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 839-1852
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102655845389&s=16375&e=001DhXs8MR8stnaiEV_MRuviuSqbtc3Yl-vG8trQziN1ZKvY6wl26uRg50IvqGsoLToqUbW1_kNfHG5aeS8KeT4OV-fM_vCaBnxLvGT2LMEuOw=
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Admonishes
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
for
Eliminating State Funding for Domestic Violence
Programs
July 30, 2009, Denver, CO-
California's governor, with the swoop of his pen, has cut the
heart out of the state's vital programs and services helping
women, children and families deal with domestic battery,
assault and violence. His line-item veto of the state's
$20 million anti-family violence program is an attempt to bail
out California's budget deficit by targeting the programs
whose users are the least likely to speak out and fight back
because they are too busy struggling to save their lives,
their children and their physical safety.
This is not a
"furlough," this isn't even an IOU. This is a cruel act
by a political "terminator." This veto will have to
either be overridden by the state legislature or reinstated by
them at a drastically reduced level in order to get the
governor's support.
The real tragedy is that
other states are also suffering budget shortfalls and are
making cuts in human needs programs and services. If
they don't see a national outcry about California's heartless
disposal of programs that help almost 100 shelters and service
providers, they will follow the leader and make their own cuts
and terminations.
Shelters and anti-violence programs
are NOT just places where people who have been battered come
to "cool off." These shelters are domestic violence
crisis centers where women, children and families are not only
patched up but counseled and steered to agencies, programs and
services that can help them heal and thrive. In many
instances, with early identification of a problem, families
can deal with the violence together and children witnessing
violence can be counseled and nurtured.
Our nation is
horrified by the rapes of refugee women in Darfur and the
cruel abandonment of Katrina's survivors left standing on a
bridge, and we should be equally outraged that the state of
California is abandoning the tens of thousands of fragile and
wounded women and children who rely for their safety and
future on the services and referrals provided by the shelters
and centers. We must work with California's political
leadership to remedy this situation and also stand firm so
that the governor's cutting tool doesn't continue a swath
across our whole country.
Advocates for violence
prevention from all over the country will be calling on
California's governor to help reinstate funding for the
programs and services. We send and spend our money in
California, as tourists, consumers of California's products
and parents of children going to California's colleges to name
a few examples. He will hear from us at both his
Sacramento (916-445- 2841) and Los Angeles (213-897-0322)
offices.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The
mission of NCADV is to organize for collective power by
advancing transformative work, thinking, and leadership of
communities and individuals working to end the violence in our
lives. NCADV believes violence against women and children
results from force or threat to achieve and maintain control
in intimate relationships as well as from societal abuse of
power and domination via sexism, racism, homophobia, classism,
anti-Semitism, able-bodyism, ageism, and other oppressions.
NCADV recognizes that abuse of power in society can foster
battering by perpetuating conditions that condone violence
against women and children. To learn more about NCADV, please
visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102655845389&s=16375&e=001DhXs8MR8stnaiEV_MRuviuSqbtc3Yl-vG8trQziN1ZKvY6wl26uRg50IvqGsoLToqUbW1_kNfHG5aeS8KeT4OV-fM_vCaBnxLvGT2LMEuOw=.
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