DOJ halts LISC support, pausing Vernon County domestic‑violence services funded by rural grant

The U.S. Department of Justice informed Vernon County in late April that it had terminated LISC’s Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative award, forcing the county and its partners to stop work on the DOJ‑funded program immediately, county officials said.

The notice, read aloud during the Public Safety and Justice Committee meeting, stated that recipients must “immediately stop work under your contract with LISC” and that LISC “will not be able to reimburse you for obligations incurred or expenditures made after Tuesday 04/22/2025.” The termination removed an expected revenue stream that supported coordinated domestic‑violence services across the county.

Why it matters: the three‑year grant—awarded to Vernon County on behalf of the sheriff’s office and community partners—totaled $200,000 and was expected to run through 2025. County and program staff said the cut affects offender assessments that feed required six‑month intervention groups, healthy‑relationship education in schools and a volunteer responder program that links victims to immediate services.

Susan Townsley, clinical director at Stone House Counseling, told the committee the program had become “a holistic approach to domestic violence in our community”…