Organizations that provide support and advocacy for crime victims — particularly women and children — are grappling with budget cuts that promise to go even deeper next year.
The cuts are the result of a decline in grant funding coming in through the Crime Victims Fund — a federal program that directs funds to supporting victims of sexual violence, child sex abuse, human trafficking and gun violence. The fund, which was created through the 1984 Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, is dependent on penalties and fines from federal criminal convictions, meaning that its funding fluctuates.
The fund has steadily dwindled in recent years, from a peak of $13.1 billion in 2017 to $3.3 billion in 2024. And ongoing lawsuits against two defendants over large penalties has put 60% of the fund’s balance in limbo, according to an October 2024 memo from the Connecticut Judicial Branch’s Office of Victim Services, which distributes the federal grant.
As the overall size of the fund has decreased, so has Connecticut’s share. From 2022 to 2025, lawmakers used federal coronavirus dollars to bolster the dropping funds, so that the nonprofits had a steady funding stream. But last year, that money ran out.
Josiah Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Connecticut CASA, said despite the organization’s growth, he expects it will be be “flat-funded at most” this year, which would amount to about $142,000. Instead, he said, the organization’s funding was cut by about 25% at a time when it’s trying to expand services.
CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, assigns volunteers to visit a single child or set of siblings on a monthly basis for at least a year and a half. The purpose is to provide a consistent adult advocate for children who have experienced abuse and neglect, in a system where the social workers and attorneys assigned to these children are under large caseloads.
Brown said the organization had been receiving $142,000 annually since 2022, when it only had three staff members working in two courts. CASA now has five full-time and one part-time staff member working in seven courts, and the organization is hoping to hire an additional person to support volunteers.
But this year, Brown said, the organization received only $104,000 in VOCA funds. And next year funds are expected to be cut further, down to about $82,000, leaving CASA with a shortfall of about $60,000.
“While we really appreciate the VOCA funding we receive, it’s really important. It’s now covering a small fraction of our program staff and it’s not covering any of our other expenses,” Brown said.
According to Marc Pelka, deputy director of the Office of Victim Services, the Judicial Branch went from distributing a total of $30 million each of the years between 2022 and 2025 to $21 million this year and $15.1 million next year.
Brown said CASA doesn’t expect to cut any staff members — it can make up the $60,000 through money in reserves and with the help of steady donors. CASA also received $250,000 from the state for 2026 and 2027. But he said the funding cuts would keep the organization from growing any further.
Meghan Scanlon, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said her organization is also bracing for cuts. The nonprofit’s funding was cut nearly in half — from $8.5 million in 2025 to $4.5 million this year. Next year, she said, those funds will be cut even further, down to a little under $4 million.
According to Scanlon, President Donald Trump’s current budget proposal would allocate $1.9 billion to the federal Crime Victims Fund. But that budget request has not yet been approved.
“You can’t fundraise yourself out of a $6.5 million deficit,” Scanlon said.
According to data from CCADV, the organization had to cut the number of full time advocates from approximately 83 down to 55. Liza Andrews, CCADV’s vice president of government and public relations, said the organization was able to serve over 40,000 victims in 2025. With the funding decrease, she said, it will serve an estimated 26,300 victims by the end of the 2026 fiscal year.
In 2027, CCADV leaders plan to reduce the number of advocates to 47 and they’re not sure how many victims they will be able to help.
“I think it means that we’re going to have to prioritize people based on safety and risk, which doesn’t always work out the way you think,” Scanlon said. For instance, a person might be evaluated as being “low-risk” but overnight something could happen that changes the level of risk they face.
CCADV receives about $8.65 million each year through the state Department of Social Services. Andrews said it did not formally request additional state funding this year, although its leaders did have conversations with lawmakers.
According to information provided to the legislature’s Appropriations Committee by the Office of Victim Services, the office would need about $4 million in order to keep the 38 nonprofits they support at the same funding levels next year that they received this year.
