State receives grant to prevent domestic violence

AUGUSTA – Maine is receiving a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent domestic violence.

The funds will be administered through the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Thirty percent of the grant goes to nonprofit or nongovernmental victim service organizations; 25 percent to law enforcement; 25 percent toward prosecution of perpetrators and 5 percent to courts. The remaining 15 percent can be used at the state’s discretion.

In recent years, more than half of Maine’s homicides have fallen into the domestic violence category.

“Sadly, women are more likely to be assaulted, injured or killed by a male partner than by any other assailant,” U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a joint statement. “The [Justice Department] grant award … will enhance services to victims of domestic violence in Maine and improve efforts to hold offenders accountable for their crimes against women.”

Past funding from the Justice Department grant program has allowed the Augusta Family Violence Project to expand its service area, said the group’s director, Linda Wilcox.

“It has allowed us to significantly increase both direct services to victims, and to do the kind of community education that really makes a difference,” Wilcox said. “Right now, we’re using funding from this source to support a coordinator for our recently created task force in the greater Waterville area.”

Richard Taylor, grant administrator for the Public Safety Department, is developing the state’s implementation plan. He is meeting with different organizations that will be receiving the money to determine where it is most needed.

The Justice Assistance Council of Maine will make the final decision, Taylor said.

“It’s hard to put a finger on precisely where it should go, but we’ve begun to develop an infrastructure to deal with it to combine law enforcement, victim services, prosecution and courts,” Taylor said.