Who Will Answer the Call? Protecting Survivor Services in PA and Beyond

Dear friends,

Welcome to the first edition of Respect Together’s quarterly newsletter, Respect in Action. We created this newsletter to keep you connected to the work you make possible as our supporters, partners, and community. In each issue, we’ll share stories from across our statewide and national work that bring our mission to support survivors and prevent sexual assault to life.

For our first issue, we take on a difficult but urgent topic: the funding challenges that threaten essential services for sexual assault survivors and the organizations that support them.

Currently, our statewide division, the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), is confronting a crisis. For more than 110 days, the state budget impasse has created financial havoc for our 47 rape crisis centers across the Commonwealth, compoundingyears of chronic underfunding. Through our national division, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), we see how these local struggles mirror national trends. Federal funding shifts are negatively impacting us and our partners across the country — especially those providing culturally specific services in underserved and often overlooked communities. The uncertainty surrounding the ongoing federal government shutdown adds to this instability, as potential impacts on programs like SNAP and WIC further strain survivors and the organizations that serve them.

In this issue, you’ll hear directly from a Pennsylvania rape crisis center grappling with how to continue doing more with less, gain perspective on national funding challenges, and find hope in resources and stories of resilience from across our network.

Thank you for standing with us in these difficult times, and for continuing to uplift Respect Together’s work and the broader movement to end sexual abuse, assault, and harassment. Our voices are stronger together. Survivors deserve better — and we cannot settle for less.

Warmly,

Yolanda Edrington

CEO, Respect Together

([link removed])

Read More ([link removed])

“We Can’t Do More with Less Forever”: Rape Crisis Centers Struggle to Stay Afloat

For more than 50 years, Victims Resource Center has been a lifeline for survivors of sexual violence in Luzerne, Wyoming, and Carbon Counties. With three offices spread across a mix of urban and rural communities, the center has always promised that “when a survivor needs help, someone will answer.”

But right now, that promise is under threat.

([link removed])

Read More ([link removed])

Funding Challenges and a Federal Government Shutdown Raise National Concerns

While the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR) continues to advocate fiercely for state funding, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) is tracking a troubling national trend: widespread underfunding for victim services and prevention.

Jennifer Grove, NSVRC’s Chief Operating Officer, has spent nearly three decades in this movement and says the financial strain on the field is deeply concerning.

([link removed])

Read More ([link removed])

The Power of Showing Up

“Every person that works at a rape crisis center makes a conscious choice to show up to work each day, believe survivors, and make their community a safer place. Resilience is a constant thread in their work and the lives of survivors. No matter what, these people do not give up..."

-Gabriella Romeo, Public Policy Director, PCAR

([link removed])

Watch & Share ([link removed])

Together We Can Support Survivors

Our new video, Together We Can Support Survivors, shares this message of solidarity and action. It’s a reminder that real change starts with each of us — and that when we act together, we can strengthen the movement to end sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.

Watch and share the video today to help spread the message.

Respect Together | 2101 North Front Street | Governor's Plaza North, Building #2 | Harrisburg | PA | 17110 | US | 717-728-9740

If you no longer want to receive emails from Respect Together Quarterly Newsletter, please [link removed] (click here to opt-out).

You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the following lists - NSVRC Newsletter.

Respect Together | 2101 North Front Street | Governor's Plaza North, Building #2 | Harrisburg | PA | 17110 | US | 717-728-9740

Powered by Cvent