Law Committee accepts multiple state grants for Crime Victim and Sexual Violence Center

The Albany County Law Committee approved three grant actions for the Crime Victim and Sexual Violence Center that will add state funding for prevention and victim services.

Amanda Ringle, director of the Crime Victim and Sexual Violence Center, presented three items: (1) acceptance of additional funding from the New York State Department of Health for the Communities Mobilizing Against Violence grant; (2) authorization to accept the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) grant for sexual‑assault prevention and education (the Scribe prevention and education funding stream referenced in materials); and (3) an internal budget amendment to allocate part of a previously announced $170,000 DOH award to the county’s fees‑for‑services line.

Ringle described the DCJS prevention and education grant as a long‑standing state funding source for the center that can be used for prevention programming and direct victim services. She said the additional DOH funds were an opportunity to allocate more resources for the Communities Mobilizing Against Violence program and that the $170,000 DOH award needs internal allocation to pay for fees for services.

Committee action

Each of the three RLAs (requests for legislative action) was moved, seconded and approved on voice votes (committee members answered “Aye”). No individual roll‑call tallies were recorded on the transcript.

Implementation

Ringle said the additional DOH funding would be accepted and allocated according to program needs, the DCJS grant will continue to fund prevention and potentially direct services, and the $170,000 allocation will be moved to the appropriate budget line for fees for services. She did not provide a line‑by‑line allocation in committee.

Next steps

The center will complete the required grant acceptance paperwork and budget updates so Management and Budget can process payments and administer the awards.