ST. PAUL -- Women from around Minnesota rallied at the State Capitol on Wednesday, calling for increased funding for prevention programs and services for victims.
Chief author of two bills to do so is Sen. Mary Olson, DFL-Bemidji.
"Getting the care and services a rape or assault victim may need and putting the wheels of justice into motion depend on a trusting, confidential relationship with someone who can help the victim through the crisis," Olson said in a statement. "But just as important, we need to invest resources into education and services we know can prevent these crimes from happening in the first place."
Olson chief author of a bill to add $12 million in state funding over the next two years to support local agencies that provide assistance to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and other similar crimes. She is also chief author of the Protections for Victims of Sexual Assault Act, which proposes to strengthen confidentiality protections for assault victims and ease prosecution of offenders.
Violence Against Women Action Day was held Wednesday at the Capitol, which included a noontime rally in the Capitol Rotunda at which Olson was a featured speaker.
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Olson's funding bill focuses on increasing community outreach and education services that help prevent abuse. It has bipartisan support, with Rep. Steve Smith, R-Mound, carrying a similar version in the House.
"Budgets are so thin some programs aren't even able to pay for gas to make the trip to provide services to victims in greater Minnesota communities, let alone reach into schools and communities where prevention services can have an impact on stopping sexual violence," Donna Dunn, executive director of Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said in the statement.
"Ten years of flat funding have allowed inflation to cut services for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence to the core," she said.
The action day and rally were sponsored by the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, Minnesota Network on Abuse in Later Life and Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition.
