FAQ: The Center's New Grant for People With Disabilities

Isn't the grant called Safe Place?
No, the grant itself is not called Safe Place. SafePlace is the sexual violence and domestic violence agency in Austin, TX that administers the grant.

But isn't this a federal grant?
Yes, the funding does come from the Office for Victims of Crime, which is part of the federal Department of Justice.

Why is this money becoming available now?
When Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act in 2002, some of the more progressive legislators slipped in some language that increases the discretionary funding of VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act.

OK, so the money is there…but why people with disabilities?
While there isn't a lot of scientific data on the incidence of sexual violence against people with disabilities, what we do know indicates that people with disabilities are between two and four times more likely to be sexually abused or assaulted in their lifetimes than people in the general population. In one study, almost 80% of women with developmental disabilities reported experiencing some form of sexual violation in their lifetimes. The rate of sexual violence for women in the general population is somewhere between 20% and 25% according to most studies.

Hold on, is this grant just about developmental disabilities or what?
No, our proposal covered all forms of disability, including physical, sensory, emotional and cognitive disabilities. Our research indicated that people with any of these disabilities were at a higher risk of sexual violence. Dependence on caregivers, lack of ability to verbalize the experience and lack of access to resources were among the top risk factors for people with disabilities.

OK, so what exactly are we doing with this grant?
There's a lot on our plate for this first year: we will be forming a coalition of disability and sexual violence service providers, learning more about the specific needs of sexual violence survivors with disabilities, evaluating our internal needs for serving people with disabilities, discovering the gaps in service at disability service providers surrounding sexual violence, creating a best practices handbook and training our staff and direct service staff at outside agencies about appropriate topics.