{"id":211815,"date":"2026-10-31T00:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211815"},"modified":"2026-10-31T00:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:12:55","slug":"funding-to-help-domestic-violence-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/10\/31\/funding-to-help-domestic-violence-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding to help domestic violence programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Susan Tebben\/<\/strong>Ohio Capital Journal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With data showing domestic violence as the \u201cmost prevalent violent crime in Ohio,\u201d state officials recently announced boosts to domestic violence programs, including survivor services and law enforcement training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio Department of Public Safety\u2019s Office of Criminal Justice Services found that more than half of all violent crime arrests in Ohio had a domestic violence charge as part of the case, with 70 percent of the arrests conducted on repeat offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers studied half a century of criminal history data in the state, including about 2 million violent crime arrests from 1974 to 2023, according to a release about the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also found that from 2014 to 2023, 54 percent of violent crime arrests involved domestic violence. That statistic went up to 56 percent in the last five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnecdotally, we suspected that domestic violence was among the most frequent violent crimes in the state, and this data confirms it,\u201d Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe data also reinforces the fact that Ohio must continue to be innovative in its work to protect both domestic violence survivors and the law enforcement officers who respond to calls for help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio had its second highest amount of deaths from domestic violence-related incidents in 2025, according to data released this month from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network. The report showed 134 deaths in 101 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year before was the highest amount of deaths since the network began collecting fatality statistics 11 years ago. In 2024, Ohio had 157 deaths in 108 cases. Over the last two years of data, the network found that in 49 percent of cases, the victim was attempting to leave the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese homicides are not random,\u201d said Maria York, the network\u2019s director of policy and communications, when the report was announced. \u201cThey are the final act of control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of a recent announcement of funding set aside for \u201cspecific domestic-violence-related projects,\u201d the governor\u2019s office said an additional $1 million will be directed toward the state\u2019s domestic violence shelters recognized by the Office of Criminal Justice Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 55 shelters across the state will each receive a one-time grant of $18,000 for \u201cimmediate shelter and meeting the critical needs of family violence victims and their dependents,\u201d according to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Office of Criminal Justice Services announced another $4 million in \u201cfederal emergency shelter and supportive services grants for domestic violence victims and their dependents,\u201d in an October 27 press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The funding is from the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act Formula Grant to States and Territories, administered through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state office said 64 projects in 46 counties will be funded for one year, from July 2026 through June 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant amounts ranged from $115,000 going to Stark County\u2019s Domestic Violence Project, Inc., to $30,000 awards for Greene County\u2019s Violence Free Futures, Geauga County\u2019s Womensafe, and Summit County\u2019s Asian Services in Action, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Law enforcement will also be receiving state funding meant for programs related to domestic violence, like one to provide training on \u201clethality assessments,\u201d which are used to decide how much a survivor risks future domestic violence based on the situation to which law enforcement are responding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funding announced by the governor\u2019s office is also set to help establish \u201cco-responder partnership models.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those models would partner victim services advocates with law enforcement \u201cto help ensure that trauma-informed support is immediately available on-scene for survivors after law enforcement responds to a domestic violence incident,\u201d according to the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A separate grant is also set aside to fund \u201cballistic shields,\u201d which would be used by law enforcement when responding to \u201chigh-risk calls like domestic violence incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, DeWine tasked the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board to develop standards for responses to domestic violence, and investigations of it, using the Ohio Domestic Violence Network\u2019s handbook for law enforcement working with domestic violence survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network praised the new grant funding and the work to set law enforcement standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are especially pleased to work with the Ohio Collaborative to provide law enforcement with more guidance about responding to domestic violence calls, which can be the most dangerous calls police get,\u201d said ODVN\u2019s senior director for survivor services, Alicia Williamson, in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network worked with the Office of Criminal Justice Services on a training initiative to offer seven regional, in-person trainings, and seven virtual trainings for law enforcement in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a press release from ODVN, topics in the trainings will include trauma-informed investigations, lethality assessments, strangulation and brain injuries, protection order enforcement, and victims\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first of the trainings is scheduled for November 18 in Columbus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Susan Tebben\/Ohio Capital Journal With data showing domestic violence as the \u201cmost prevalent violent crime in Ohio,\u201d state officials recently announced boosts to domestic violence programs, including survivor services and law enforcement training. The Ohio Department of Public Safety\u2019s Office of Criminal Justice Services found that more than half of all violent crime arrests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-07 05:44:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211843,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211815\/revisions\/211843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}