funding briefing - Florida Council Against Sexual Violence

Florida Council Against Sexual
Violence
Because Sexual Violence Shatters Lives, Wounds
Communities, and Perpetuates Injustice
The Florida Council Against Sexual Violence (FCASV) was established as the Florida
Council of Sexual Abuse Services in 1986 by advocates and clinicians across the state
who recognized the need to provide information to policy makers at the local and state
levels on matters of concern to survivors of sexual violence, their families, and the varied
programs providing services to them. Now the federally-recognized state sexual assault
coalition, FCASV is tasked by the State of Florida with certifying rape crisis program
compliance with Core Service and Governance Standards, monitoring compliance with
those same standards, and distributing Rape Crisis Program Trust Funds and nonrecurring
general revenue appropriated by the Legislature to certified sexual violence
programs. That is, the distribution of state funding to rape crisis programs for the
provision of services to victims/survivors of sexual violence and their families has been
privatized through the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence since such funding
became available.
The two funding sources mentioned above, the Rape Crisis Program Trust Fund, created
in 2003, and non-recurring General Revenue, first appropriated by the Legislature in
2004, have stabilized services to victims of sexual violence by providing a steady, if
fluctuating, stream of money to certified rape crisis programs that had previously
depended entirely on very limited funding from the federal government. However,
current state funding levels are insufficient if Florida’s rape crisis programs are to meet
the very real needs of the more than 740,000 adult women in Florida who have already
been victimized by sexual assault, and the more than 30,000 Florida citizens victimized
each year.
Current Funding:
1. The Rape Crisis Program Trust Fund
In landmark legislation passed during the 2003 session, the Florida legislature created
The Sexual Battery Victims Access to Services Act and the Rape Crisis Program Trust
Fund (RCPTF) in the Department of Health (FS 704.055, 794.056 and 938.085). The Act
created a mandatory $151 fine on offenders convicted of sexual battery and other
offenses including many of the aggravated battery and battery offenses. The Act also
created a funding system for distribution of monies generated by this fine to rape crisis
centers by formula and designated the Department of Health to contract with a statewide
non-profit, the federally-recognized state sexual assault coalition, to distribute the funds.
Collections to the RCPTF increased significantly from 2003 to 2008 due to efforts by the
Florida Department of Health, the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence (FCASV),
rape crisis centers, prosecutors, probation officers and judges. With the economic
downturn, funds collected in the RCPTF have been decreasing significantly despite
increased education efforts:
Collections in August 2010 were down $15,000 over August 2009.

During SFY 08/09, FCASV distributed $1,586,339 from the RCPTF by formula
to 30 certified rape crisis centers in Florida. That figure dropped to $1,568,957 for
SFY 09/10.
FCASV put forward a legislative proposal during the 2010 session to enhance the Rape
Crisis Program Trust Fund (RCPTF) by adding several additional crimes related to sexual
violence to the mandatory fine. While the Senate bill passed, the House companion
failed. FCASV plans to prioritize this legislation again during the 2011 session.
2. Non-Recurring General Revenue for Rape Crisis Centers
Rape crisis programs received $250,000 in the Legal Affairs budget in 2009 and 2010,
$400,000 in victim compensation trust fund dollars in 2008, and $400,000 in nonrecurring
general revenue in 2007—a $700,000 cut from 2006.
Rape Crisis Center Response to Sexual Assault:
In 30 certified rape crisis centers, staff and volunteers provide Florida’s frontline
response to the crimes of sexual assault and sexual abuse serving 8,201 new (not
previously served) victims of sexual violence during SFY 2009/2010 and continuing
to provide services to victims first seen in previous years. Core services include:
Operating 24-hour hotlines (response to 10,333 calls in SFY 09/10);
Providing advocacy and accompaniment through medical and legal processes
(31,433 units provided in SFY 09/10);
Providing medical/forensic examinations (2,500 provided in SFY09/10);
Following-up with ongoing care through individual and group counseling (21,168
crisis intervention sessions; 1,812 support groups; and 10,671 therapy sessions
provided in SFY 09/10).
Coordinating response efforts; and
Educating their communities on sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Unmet Need:
Rape Crisis Programs are experiencing waiting lists, severe staffing shortages and
layoffs, and cannot meet the state’s need with current resources.
Approximately 100 rape crisis advocates in the state of Florida provide services
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In order to serve every victim of rape in Florida,
each advocate would need to reach 7,130 female survivors to provide hotline
services, crisis intervention, advocacy, medical intervention and therapy.
Fewer than 10% of sexual violence programs are able with current resources to
provide the standard services identified as those most needed by rape victims. As
a result, many programs have waiting lists.
Many programs cannot afford to have a licensed therapist on staff and lack staff to
run support groups, especially groups for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and
male survivors. Research indicates that trauma-related intervention services
(trauma-focused counseling and therapy) are the services survivors want
more of from rape crisis/sexual assault treatment programs. Rape Crisis
Programs have the necessary expertise, but not the necessary funding, to
provide what survivors consistently need and ask for.

Several would like to hire a volunteer coordinator to increase service provision
but lack available funds. After-hours advocacy and accompaniment can be
competently provided by well-trained, well-supervised volunteers. Volunteers
who are able to provide direct services value that experience and, consequently,
further engage the community in supporting the rape crisis program. A wellfunctioning,
self-seeding volunteer program substantially reduces staff
burnout and frees up staff members to provide more in-depth support and
on-going advocacy for survivors. Without funding to hire a volunteer
coordinator, all after-hours advocacy and accompaniment is provided by
already overtaxed and underpaid staff members.
Rural counties and outlying areas have very few, if any, services available. In
rural areas, many victims have to drive 2 hours to see a rape crisis
advocate/counselor or wait 2 weeks until a rape crisis counselor is available to
visit their county.
Follow-up medical care, including HIV prevention medication is not generally
available.
$2.5 million in recurring general revenue is needed to ensure that sexual assault
victims who seek services in Florida receive crisis intervention, advocacy and
response to 24 hour hotlines. Additional funding would be needed to ensure
survivors have access to therapy to resolve trauma and to reach out to underserved
populations.
The Scope of the Problem:
While 10,227 forcible sex offenses were reported in Florida in 2009, only 2,877 arrests
were made and many more sex offenses went unreported. (The FBI and the Bureau of
Justice estimate that only 38% of sexual assault are reported to law enforcement, which
would mean that there were approximately 26,773 forcible sex offenses actually
committed in Florida in 2009. According to national researchers, approximately one out
of every nine adult women in Florida has been the victim of forcible rape. In other words,
over 740,000 women in Florida have been the victims of forcible rape (Ruggiero and
Kilpatrick, 2003). Yet, at current funding levels, Florida ranks 47th in the nation in the
number of rape crisis programs per capita. One program exists for every 18,000 adult,
female survivors.
Victims of sexual assault who do not receive recovery services face serious risks to
their health and well-being:
Most sexual assault survivors will experience some array of physical and
psychological symptoms over time including chronic pain, gastrointestinal
disorders, pelvic pain and headaches (Screening Your Patients for Sexual Assault:
A Guide for Health Care Professionals, FCASV, 2009).
Victims of sexual assault who do not receive services are in danger of increased
substance abuse, mental health problems including major depression, suicide, and
post-traumatic stress disorder (National Center for Victims of Crime, 1999).
Sixty-one percent of homeless girls and 16% of homeless boys report sexual
abuse as the reason for leaving home (Estes & Weiner, 2001).

Sexual Violence is costly to community well-being:
Rape is responsible for 11-20% of teenage pregnancies (Boyer and Fine, 1993).
Rape victims’ visits to medical providers increase almost 60% a year after the
assault and over 30% in the second year after the assault (Koss, 1993).
Sexual assault hurts our state’s economy, and the economic impact worsens if
victims do not receive the services they need to re-gain their stability:
Medical expenses, lost productivity, treatment of psychological trauma, pain and
suffering are estimated to cost each victim $110,000 (United States Department of
Justice).
21% of victims miss eleven or more days from work as a result of the crime.
(Bureau of Justice Statistics).
Fifty percent of rape victims lost or were forced to quit their jobs in the year
following their rapes due to the severity of their reactions (Ellis, Atkeson &
Calhoun, 1981).
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including child sexual abuse, can lead to
poor job performance and work absenteeism in adulthood (Anda et al., 2004).
Sexual assault victims lose approximately $2,200 due to decreased productivity
and lost wages in the aftermath of sexual violence (MacMillan, 2001).
Sexual assault victims earn $6,000 less in annual income than non-victims
(MacMillan, 2001).
Lifetime income loss, due to sexual violence in adolescence, is estimated at
$241,600 (MacMillan, 2001).
Jennifer Dritt, Executive Director Terri Poore, Public Affairs Director
jdritt@fcasv.org
(850) 297-2000 (office)
tpoore@fcasv.org
(850) 297-2000 (office)
(850) 321-0781 (mobile) (850) 228-3428 (mobile)