Funding Updates for WAVE

Letter from Annette: We wanted to reach out to our supporters and update you on some news that impacts WAVE. As you remember In 2016 WAVE applied for and received the Rural Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence and Stalking Assistance Program award from the Office on Violence Against Women. This was a 3 year award which we reapplied for in 2019. We received noticed that we were not selected as a grantee for this funding cycle. This is a highly competitive grant and we were very lucky as a community to receive this award in 2016. This award allowed us to help survivors with protection orders, emergency housing and transportation, systems advocacy, and so much more. We were also able to provide training to local law enforcement, medical providers, first responders, ministerial association, local employers, elders, and more. I am very proud of the staff and board for all that we have been able to accomplish in the past 3 years. This does however impact us. As an organization, we are losing over $100,000 in funding annually. We have cut one full time position and the remaining four staff positions have had hours cut. Our hope is to minimize the impact on survivors as much as we can however we did lose the funding that provided emergency transportation costs and local training. This does not mean we give up. WAVE will still maintain a 24/7 response line and office hours Monday-Friday 9 am-4 pm. As an organization we are pulling together to ensure we continue to seek other and all funding opportunities including donations. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to give me a call 907.772.9282. Gunalchéesh, Annette Wooton Bennett Executive Director WAVE