HHS News Release

Following President Clinton's kick-off of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the award of over $700,000 in grants to help communities prevent family violence through public awareness, outreach, and collaboration.

"Domestic violence fills our emergency rooms with injured and our shelters with families," Secretary Shalala said. "These grants will help provide the lifeline to safety for domestic violence victims and their children."

Funded by HHS' Administration for Children and Families under the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, the grantees will create a heightened public awareness of domestic violence, establish partnerships with churches, universities and other organizations and develop and conduct extensive community outreach. In 16 states
across the country, grantees will provide information on domestic violence and encourage participation of organizations and individuals in communities in strategies to prevent violence and provide support to victims.

"Victims of domestic violence need information about the options available to them to stay safe from their batterers and to keep their children free from the violence," said Mary Jo Bane, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. "Each of us has a role to play in our communities to provide support and assistance to restore the right of victims to live free from fear in the one place where they should feel safe and secure -- in their own homes."

"The Clinton Administration has made an unprecedented commitment to confronting domestic violence," Shalala said. "The President has consistently sought to bring this problem out of the closet. The Administration has stood by the Violence Against Women Provisions of the Crime Bill which have come under attack in the Republican Congress. He has directed all federal agencies to educate their employees about domestic violence. And the Clinton Administration is bringing together domestic violence advocates and members of the business community to form partnerships aimed at prevention."

The 18 grantees are:

o Division of Native Americans, People Legal Services, Inc.,
Window Rock, Ariz., $35,000.
o March of Dimes, Inc., San Francisco, Calif., $35,000.
o University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.,
$40,000.
o Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline,
Honolulu, Hawaii, $35,000.
o Kansas Childrens Service League, Wichita, Kan., $35,000.
o Southern University, Baton Rouge, La., $40,000.
o Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women Service Groups,
Boston, Mass., $50,000.
o Revere Office of Community Action, Chelsea, Mass.,
$35,000.
o Maine Department of Human Services, Augusta, Maine,
$50,000.
o Legal Services of Eastern Michigan, Flint, Mich., $35,000.
o Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence,
Dayton, Ohio, $50,000.
o Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County, Inc., Media,
Pa., $47,154.
o Women Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh, Pa., $50,000.
o Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Warwick,
R.I., $35,000.
o South Dakota State University, Brookings, S.D., $33,225
o Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn., $40,000.
o The Family Place, Dallas, Texas, $49,375.
o Hampton University, Hampton, Va., $39,939.

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Contact: Michael Kharfen (202) 401-9215