Patriot-News: Domestic violence programs seek funding

My byline in today’s Patriot-News:

Five years ago, Jeane Decker made a call that she says every woman in Pennsylvania should be able to make.

Unemployed and in danger of losing her home, the mother of two had recently left an abusive marriage. She called the Women’s Resource Center in Scranton for help. She received comfort, advice and transitional housing for her and her children.

“That is where life as I now know it began,” Decker said.

Such programs, though, are scrambling for money, Decker and advocates for domestic violence services told the House Judiciary Committee in the Capitol on Tuesday.

Group representatives extolled legislation that would increase their funding by raising the state’s marriage license fee and creating a similar charge for filing divorce or annulment paperwork.

The bill won’t pass this legislative session, which ends on Nov. 30, said committee Chairman Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks, but he said he would reintroduce it next year… More.

Posted on B1 of the Patriot-News today.

Photo courtesy of the University of Westminster.

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