Supporters of domestic violence victims are planning to hold an Oct. 3 rally at the State House in an effort to save the Quincy-based shelter known as DOVE, or Domestic Violence Ended, from being shut down. Pictured above is a flier for the event.

Advocates for domestic violence victims are urging state officials to save an emergency shelter on the South Shore that has been a refuge for thousands of abused women and their children for more than 25 years.

DOVE, or Domestic Violence Ended, a Quincy-based group that operates an 18-bed shelter and outreach center for victims of domestic violence, learned in August that the Department of Social Services was cutting off its funding.

Kristin Ryan, a Rockland resident who volunteers at DOVE’s shelter, along with her mother, Rosalind Marshall of Quincy, have organized a rally to be held Oct. 3 at the State House in Boston to urge state leaders to restore the funding. Ryan said without the state’s financial support, the shelter may be forced to shut its doors.

“If those doors are allowed to close, women will die. There is no doubt in my mind that women will die and children will too, unfortunately,” said Ryan.

DOVE, which has an operating budget of about $700,000 to run both the shelter and outreach center, has been receiving about $250,000 annually from DSS since the early 1980s, according to Executive Director Stephanie Flaherty. In addition to the state funding, DOVE relies on private donations and grants.

Flaherty, who became executive director last November, said DOVE has not seen a significant change in the funding provided by DSS over the years. The complete elimination of funding this year “very much took us by surprise,” said Flaherty.

After reviewing proposals sent from emergency shelters throughout the state, DSS decided not to renew its contract with DOVE for the new fiscal year, which started July 1.

DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said service providers – including emergency shelters and group homes – with which the agency does business were notified last year that the agency had developed a new set of criteria that vendors would have to meet.

Monteiro said the criteria were developed after a task force visited all of the shelters across the state serving domestic violence victims two years ago, met with clients, and discussed problems and concerns. Last year, DSS funded a total of 69 shelters for battered women statewide, offering 822 beds to victims of domestic violence and their children.

DSS notified shelters and other vendors about the new criteria so they “had a full sense of what we were looking for” and so they could make adjustments to their services accordingly, according to Monteiro.

Compared to other shelters seeking a DSS contract, DOVE failed to meet some basic requirements, said Monteiro, including having the ability to effectively serve a diverse clientele and having a network in place so that clients can access transportation and other direct services easily.

“They were at the bottom rung,” Monteiro said of DOVE.

Flaherty said DSS has temporarily extended DOVE’s contract, which was set to expire on Sept. 30, through the end of December.

‘A Larger Public Safety Issue’
DOVE wasn’t the only program to get its shelter funding cut. In western Massachusetts, the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition, or NELCWIT, sought over $900,000 in funding but received just $125,000 for its community-based services.

Sarah Dudzic, executive director of NELCWIT, said the Greenfield-based group applied for approximately $267,000 to help operate its 18-bed shelter and about $467,000 for its community-based services. DSS declined to provide any shelter funding, but with the help of local legislators, Dudzic said DSS restored another $100,000 in funding.

Still, the group, which has been receiving DSS money to run its shelter for at least eight to 10 years, is struggling to keep the shelter open.

“We feel strongly that we want to keep our shelter open. That’s always been the priority throughout this crisis,” said Dudzic. “We’re trying to run the shelter at reduced capacity and really on a shoestring or austerity budget.”

If the shelter does shut down, Dudzic said she anticipates that local police and fire departments will be dealing with more emergency calls related to domestic violence, and there will be a rise in emergency room visits.

“It’s more than just how we are going to shelter women. In addition to that, it’s about a larger public safety issue than just a woman and her abuser,” she said.

Meanwhile, DOVE officials are planning to meet with DSS on Oct. 16 to discuss its funding, according to Flaherty.

“We are still trying to work with the department to find out why our funding was cut,” said Flaherty, who noted that DOVE also is searching for alternative sources of funding.

“The reality is, without the supplemental funding [from the state], it doesn’t look promising,” she added.

Flaherty said DOVE is working with local and state leaders, including state Sen. Michael Morrissey, D-Quincy, to see if funding can be restored. It also is planning its annual fund-raiser and cocktail party for Oct. 18 at the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy.

DOVE’s shelter, created in 1978, served 152 women and 149 children during the last fiscal year and had to turn away 154 families who sought assistance because the shelter was full.

Ryan, who volunteers twice a week at DOVE’s shelter, said she has never seen a vacant bed at the shelter in the four years she’s been volunteering. Most of the women who come to the shelter have children, she added.

Flaherty said if the shelter shuts down, there is only one other shelter between Boston and Cape Cod that is specifically designed for victims of domestic violence: Womansplace in Brockton. Funding for the Womansplace shelter, which has 12 beds, was slashed by one-third this year.

Women fleeing abusive relationships can go to other emergency shelters, but they won’t be guaranteed the confidentiality and safety that comes from women’s shelters, explained Flaherty.

Mary Lauby, executive director of Jane Doe – a statewide coalition of domestic violence and sexual assault programs throughout the state – has tried to get information from DSS about the number of shelter beds that will be available to abused women this year, but the agency hasn’t provided the number because it is still negotiating contracts.

“Because the process isn’t finished, we don’t know and can’t predict what that number is,” she said.

Lauby said there has been no increase in funding for domestic violence programs in many years. “You can’t continue to split a pie in more ways and expect the same sort of services to be provided,” she said.

If DOVE has to close its shelter, Lauby said, the community will be losing an important resource that not only has provided beds for abused women, but also has educated volunteers and the public about domestic violence issues and provided advocacy in the courts.

Ryan, determined to get more support for DOVE from the state, hopes to draw at least 100 protesters to the Oct. 3 rally.

“We can’t let it close,” she said.