04/17/2026
➡️ REPOST FROM Violence Free Minnesota ⬅️
The sheer scale and prevalence of domestic violence is immense, and gender-based violence services are not only woefully underfunded; the federal administration is targeting and cutting these services by massive amounts. This is a structural issue that has seriously deepened since the pandemic and the new federal administration.
Nikki Engel and Katie Kramer, Interim Co-Executive Directors of Violence Free Minnesota, spoke with Jasmine Mithani of The 19th News for this article, along with Cornerstone Executive Director Artika Roller and National Domestic Violence Hotline CEO Katie-Ray Jones. Nikki shared that the demand for domestic violence legal services has increased since the pandemic, and programs have reported "a huge increase in post-separation abuse." Nikki also shared that since the pandemic, "victim/survivors [have] more holistic and complicated needs."
We must be completely clear:
Domestic violence is a public health issue and a public safety issue, and it is not being treated as such. The federal administration has relentlessly hamstrung an already massively overburdened and underfunded field, and that has real, serious impacts on survivors.
When our already too-little funding is cut; when we are told domestic violence is a “little fight with the wife;” when we are told we cannot advocate for or focus on providing culturally specific services to 2SLGBTQIA+ survivors, disabled survivors, immigrant survivors, Black survivors, Indigenous survivors, and survivors of color, the human toll of this structural violence is IMMENSE and dangerous.
https://19thnews.org/2026/04/domestic-violence-safety-net-funding-survivors/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRPKupleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeKC_cX2kiYFofkMp1XH6PltuW2swsSChWUPLgBxlD1Tfa4YYlQJz4V2Ii83Y_aem_5sjstwn-N9UH6-ve41dr8w
An already underfunded system is under even more stress, as cases have gotten more complex and the Trump administration has sown confusion.
