COLUMBUS — Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that several organizations, including one based in Wayne County, will receive $4.8 million in grants to support rape crisis centers and sexual assault survivor programs across the state.
Wooster-based OneEighty Inc. is one of the 25 rape crisis centers and survivor service providers slated for funding, with $223,206 on its way in the form of a grant.
Facilities in Richland and Knox counties also received funding.
The agency provides substance abuse counseling, a shelter for battered women and other services in Wayne and Holmes counties.
Rhiannon Wahlen-Harris, director of community prevention and victim services for OneEighty, said she’s thrilled, though it’s too early to know how that money will be used.
She said she’s waiting to hear more details about how the money can be used specifically.
“But if we have the ability to expand capacity anywhere, that’s definitely something we’re going to look at,” Wahlen-Harris said.
According to DeWine’s office, the grant funding is meant to help the programs “offer virtual and remote crisis services, support emergency needs of sexual assault survivors and pay for hiring and retention bonuses to attract and maintain staff to ensure the continuity of sexual assault recovery services.”
“The services provided by our rape crisis centers are essential for helping sexual assault survivors recover from trauma,” DeWine said in a prepared statement. “These funds will not only help survivors get the support they need but will also ensure that service providers have enough staff members to walk along with survivors on their recovery journey.”
The grant program will be administered through the Office of Criminal Justice, a program funded by the 2021 Family Violence Prevention and Services Act American Rescue Plan Act Rape Crisis Center and Sexual Assault Programs Supplemental COVID-19 funds, according to the governor’s press release.
This news follows an October announcement that $3.6 million would be available for family violence prevention grants and another $6.7 million for domestic violence programs.
OCJS is a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
