State Budget FY2010 Update:
Thank you for all your support.

The state budget for Fiscal Year 2010 had been passed and been signed into law. Funding for sexual assault services was cut by 21% and for domestic violence services by 7%. Jane Doe Inc.then turned it's efforts to doing everything it can to work with the programs and state funders to try to minimize the impact of these funding cuts.

Then in November 2009, Governor Patrick cut $1 million (a 1/3 of the entire budget) from the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Line Item 4510-0810 of the Department of Public Health (DPH) budget for FY2010. This is the line item under which all of the state’s rape crisis centers receive funding to provide 24 hour accompaniment to survivors who need to go to the hospital for a forensic exam. It also pays for the SANE nurses and the Children's Advocacy Centers who make up the team of responders for recent victims of sexual violence. Download a fact sheet about the services that SANE provides to adults and children. These programs play a crucial role, not only in providing compassionate services to survivors, but also in ensuring that evidence is collected and handled properly so that rapists are identified, prosecuted and convicted.

The size of this cut would have meant the near elimination of a crucial system of coordinated care for survivors of sexual violence. Thanks to a coordinated effort of rape crisis centers, children advocacy programs, SANE providers, law enforcement, elected officials, child protection agencies and other friends and allies, we succeeded in getting these funds restored.

We couldn't have done this without you! And we'll need your help again in the coming months. For current updates and action alerts about SANE, joinus on Facebook on the SUPPORT SANE Fan Page.

You can read more about our efforts and hear the voices of advocates speaking to the critical need of these services. Here's a sampling of media coverage:

1) Gina Scaramella, Executive Director of BARCC was featured on The Boston Channel, WCVB-TV: click her to watch.

2) The Boston Globe published an article on the cut to SANE under the heading: "Rape treatment plan facing big budget cuts".

3) Karen Brown from WFCR in Amherst interviewed Tom King, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Children's Alliance (MACA), Click here to listen.

4) Mary Lauby, JDI's Executive Director, commented on the victory in this Boston Herald Article, click here to read.

In these difficult financial times, we hope you will consider lending your own personal financial support to these programs to help ensure that they can continue to provide the highest quality of support and advocacy to survivors and their families.

Meanwhile, JDI is already beginning to look at our budget strategy for next year. We'll need you to raise your voices once again.

So get ready!