The latest round of state budget cuts will soon hit aid programs to vulnerable citizens, including childhood support services and family violence prevention and intervention. Early Childhood Support and Services will cease to exist, and earlier this month Gov. Bobby Jindal announced trimmed family violence prevention and intervention funding.
As a two-time victim of domestic violence, Baton Rouge resident Theolonious Gage knows how vital these shelters can be.
“If you shut women out, you’ll put them in a line of fire. … I think they feel helpless,” she said. “The only little safe haven they have, to have it taken from them. It shouldn’t have to be that way.”
Gage works with the Ebenezer Baptist Church to help alleviate budget cuts by donating clothes to the women’s shelter. She also works with the community to honor her daughter who was killed by her abuser.
One day, she said she hopes to see tougher laws on domestic violence and more grants toward domestic violence prevention.
In situations of domestic violence, Gage said friends should listen to the concerns of women and develop a sense of compassion.
The Violence Policy Center’s study, “When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data,” found that Louisiana ranks fourth nationally in single victim-single offender homicides of women murdered by men.
“It is personal to the 3,536 women who receive protective orders through us every year and to the families and loved ones of the 59 individuals who were murdered last year in Louisiana as a result of domestic violence,” said Audrey Wascome, interim executive director of Capital Area Family Violence Intervention Center.
Carmen D. Weisner, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers for the Louisiana chapter, said the cuts to domestic violence prevention will impact the individuals with the greatest needs and least resources.
“We are seeing more and more of these draconian-type cuts, and there is no way out of a bad situation,” Weisner said.
When women leave situations of abuse, most do not have the resources to stay in hotels and do not want to put friends or family at risk by staying with them, Weisner said.
She said domestic violence can also have a correlation with child abuse.
“Domestic violence has a ripple effect,” Weisner said.
Timothy Page, associate professor of social work practice with children, specializes in children and family treatment and vulnerable children and has worked with the ECSS program.
“Louisiana has been a leader in early childhood health, and to undermine that will have tremendous consequences,” Page said. “You are taking a group of the most vulnerable — socially and personally— children and families in Louisiana and you increase their vulnerability for a variety of personal and social outcomes.”
Although not cut completely, the Department of Children and Family Services was reduced by 21.6 percent, according to Wascome, which amounted to $127,200.
“If you don’t pay for these services early in life, you will pay much more down the road. It’s much cheaper, all the way around, to address these problems earlier rather than later,” Page said.
“Louisiana has been a leader in early childhood health and to undermine that will have tremendous consequences.”

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Lauren Duhon

Theolonious Gage remembers her daughter Yarnell Gage who was killed on June 9, 2007. Gage said she hopes her daughter's death will help save the lives of others.