Iowa group receives funding for programs for deaf victims of sexual assault

From The Iowa Independent:

The Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which has led the National Sexual Assault Coalition Resource Sharing Project since 2003, was recently named the benefactor of a $400,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The monies will be used to provide structure for the Justice for Deaf Victims National Coalition (JDVNC), an organization that has been in existence in an informal way since 2000.

Although the main goal of the program will be to enhance and further educate the already existing 18 JDVNC-related organizations throughout the nation, leadership is hopeful that the grant will also lead to expansion into additional geographical areas.

“One of the goals of the project will be to establish a national data collection process so we can get solid numbers to back up the need we know is there,” said Gretchen Waech, executive director of JDVNC. “What I can tell you is that, statistically, persons with disabilities are at least twice as likely to be victims of domestic or sexual assault; when you consider that the statistics for the general population are already incredibly high — one in three women is the accepted statistic, although it varies — this is a mind-boggling problem.”

In the grant proposal submitted to federal agencies, the deaf community was highlighted as “a widely overlooked cultural minority group.”

“Victim advocacy programs are not equipped to provide culturally appropriate and linguistically accessible services to deaf survivors,” Waech said. “At best, most programs will make a half-hearted effort to find an interpreter for support groups or make sure their shelters are physically accessible. This is not enough. Thus, deaf victims and survivors rarely get the services they need to help them heal and move on with their lives.”