Vermont Network asks Senate to add $1.2M in base funding to shore up domestic-violence services

Sarah Robinson, co-executive director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10 that community-based domestic-violence service providers face an immediate funding shortfall and asked the Senate to add $1.2 million in base funding to Vermont’s Domestic and Sexual Violence (DSV) Special Fund.

Robinson described the network as a membership organization representing 15 independent nonprofits that provide shelter, crisis response, court accompaniment and other services statewide. “In 2024, our member organizations provided shelter to 1,400 survivors across Vermont, including nearly 500 children,” she told the committee.

She said the special fund — created in 2008 and primarily supported by surcharges on marriage licenses and on civil and criminal judgments — generates roughly $784,000 a year, which is distributed statewide by a formula that accounts for square…