skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

AZ Abuse Shelter Challenged by State Cuts

play audio
Play

Friday, September 10, 2010   

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Cuts in state funding have prompted the nation's largest domestic violence shelter to reduce capacity and put off expansion plans. But the Phoenix-based Sojourner Center is still able to serve 95 percent of women and children seeking help.

Executive director Connie Phillips says abused women sometimes mistakenly assume the state's financial difficulties mean there's nowhere for them to go.

"So many of the services have been cut that women have gotten the message that there's not support available to them. It really discourages women from leaving and colludes with the batterer, with the abuser, who is telling her 'You're not going to make it on your own.'"

Phillips says other shelters are available to handle any overflow from Sojourner Center, so that everyone seeking help will get it. Sojourner Center accepts women and their children from all over Arizona, and even from other states.

Facing a funding shortfall of just under $1 million this year, Sojourner Center has reduced the number of its emergency shelter beds from 280 to 224, and put off plans to add new beds. Phillips says there's still a strong case to be made for funding shelters with tax dollars when the economy recovers.

"The amount of time that the police and courts spend on domestic violence cases, the amount of danger there is in responding to a domestic violence case - this is a public issue: public safety and public health."

Thanks to a capital fundraising campaign that was completed before the state's economy took a nosedive, Sojourner Center will be opening 29 rent-subsidized transitional apartments next month. Phillips says the units will help families get back on their feet after seeking emergency shelter.

"It allows women who have completed the shelter program, or any shelter program in the community, to be able to come and live in a gated community, a supportive environment with other women and their children, and continue to receive supportive services for up to two years."

The new campus will also include a community clubhouse, education center and resource center.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021