Initial impacts of a government shutdown on survivors of domestic and sexual violence

Like so many other agencies serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Clackamas Women’s Services relies on our government to fund a significant part of what we do to help families find safety and healing. While we do rely on the generosity of private individuals, civic groups and businesses to keep our doors open, more than half of our funding comes from our government. A prolonged government shutdown could severely impact CWS’ ability to help women and children find safety. And while some sectors of the federal government are able to absorb a shutdown, CWS is just not able to. This is about people’s lives.

To make things a little more complicated, government funding often comes in the form of quarterly reimbursements. That means that domestic violence agencies use their cash-on-hand to pay for expenses and then receive these government reimbursements every three months. October happens to be the month when we receive our federal reimbursements for costs accrued since July. If the government shutdown persists, CWS will be unable to receive reimbursements after October 4th. The shutdown has the potential to reach beyond the federal government, right into the lives of women and children seeking safety from violence.