HHS News Release

Speaking today at a "Next Millennium" Domestic Violence Conference in Chicago, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced more than $1.25 million in grants to help communities address domestic violence. The grants will build on community efforts to provide information and raise awareness, improve access to health care services and offer needed training on domestic violence issues.

"We've worked to create a comprehensive system that includes tough new penalties and programs to prosecute offenders, a seamless system of prevention and protection that follows a woman and her children from incident to safety and an inclusive system that leaves no gaps large enough for anyone to fall through," said Secretary Shalala. "But while we can all take pride in these accomplishments, we know that we still have far to go. Too many women are still having their bodies attacked and their spirits assaulted. Too many women are still suffering shattered bones, shattered lives, and shattered dreams."

The 14 new grants announced today will go to state domestic violence coalitions, community-based organizations, universities and a tribal council. HHS has awarded a total of 22 domestic violence grants this year.

To enhance public information and community awareness, grantee activities will include public service campaigns, sponsorship of local fairs and distribution of information on how to obtain needed services and prevention materials. The health care response grantees will work with local health care providers on offering appropriately sensitive services and counseling for victims of domestic violence. The three grants to universities will help train researchers, scholars, and practitioners working on domestic violence in underserved communities.

To help break the cycle of violence, the Clinton/Gore Administration has made stopping domestic violence and violence against women top priorities. Since taking office, the administration has worked to eliminate domestic violence from our communities by working to create a system that not only prevents domestic violence but which also ensures that every woman suffering from domestic violence has access to information and emergency assistance, wherever and whenever she needs it. The cornerstone of this effort is the Violence Against Women Act, included at the President's urging in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Under the law, the federal government for the first time adopted a comprehensive approach to fighting domestic violence and violence against women, combining tough new penalties with programs to prosecute offenders and assist women victims of violence.

The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a national toll-free domestic
violence hotline, more than tripled resources for battered women's shelters, and worked to
raise awareness of domestic violence in the workplace and among health care providers,
among others. The FY 1999 budget includes $156 million for HHS programs to prevent violence against women, including $1.2 million for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

The President's FY 2000 budget includes an additional $27.9 million to fund a department-wide initiative to prevent violence against women from occurring and to provide services to its victims. In total, the department is requesting $218.2 million for programs to prevent violence against women.

Each year, an estimated 2.1 million U.S. women are raped and/or physically assaulted. Because some of these women experience victimization more than once, this means that an estimated 876,000 rapes and 5.9 million physical assaults are perpetrated against U.S. women annually.

In addition to the tragic personal toll of domestic violence, the financial burdens run into the billions of dollars. A 1996 National Institute of Justice study estimates the costs at more than $100 billion a year, including $67 billion from domestic violence against adults and $32 billion from child abuse as well as additional costs for law enforcement and the judicial system.

"These new grants will provide critical assistance to communities to reach out and help victims and prevent the tragic scars of domestic violence," said Olivia A. Golden, HHS assistant secretary for children and families. "They are an important tool in our ongoing effort to improve early intervention, provide needed services, and change social norms and attitudes to make domestic violence unacceptable."

The following is a list of the grant areas and awardees this year:

Public Information/Community Awareness ($35,000 each)

Action for Boston Community Development, MA
Asian & Pacific Islander Women and Family, WA*
Bois Forte Reservation Tribal Council, MN*
Casa Myrna Vazquez, Inc., MA*
The Center for Women and Families, KY
Community against Violence, NM*
Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Family, DE*
HarborCov, Inc., MA*
Howard University, DC
March of Dimes Defects Foundation, CA
Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence, PA*

Improving Health Care Response to Domestic Violence

Alaskan Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault ($74,963)*
Cambridge Public Health Commission, MA ($75,000)*
Chicago Abused Women Coalition ($75,000)*
Common Ground Sanctuary, MI ($75,000)
Los Angeles Commission on Assaults against Women ($74,705)
New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic Violence ($75,000)
New Mexico Coalition against Domestic Violence ($70,000)*
State of Washington Department of Health ($75,000)

Training Grant Stipends in Domestic Violence ($100,000 each)

Florida A&M University*
Prairie View A & M University, TX*
Texas Southern University*

NOTE: An asterisk indicates grants which were announced today

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