The federal government has changed requirements for grants awarded to victim services organizations through the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA. Organizations across several states have joined in a lawsuit to challenge the new requirements, and domestic violence outreach groups across Michigan have raised alarms about them.
VAWA was signed into law in 1994, and was designed to improve responses to domestic and sexual violence. The Office on Violence Against Women, or OVW, is responsible for awarding grants with funds from VAWA.
Earlier this year, many grant opportunities were removed from the OVW website. Later, some were re-posted with new prohibitions - including some that bar organizations from receiving funding if they frame domestic violence or sexual assault as “social justice issues” or include DEI provisions.
Susan Rosas is the CEO of YWCA Kalamazoo - an organization that provides services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence with a focus on racial and gender equity. She said the new prohibitions go directly against the mission of YWCA — both locally and nationally.
“When we see the restrictions of this sort in a grant mechanism, it's preventing organizations from doing the work effectively and it's requiring organizations to serve some people at the sacrifice of others. And so this has a profound impact on the sector overall," Rosas said.
Nationwide, YWCA has a core mission of "ending racism and empowering women" — something Rosas says conflicts with the Trump administration's "anti-DEI" policies. YWCA Kalamazoo is celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2025, and adopted a campaign slogan to celebrate the milestone: "Woke Since 1885".
"The purpose of this campaign is to help set the stage for — we're being called woke right now, but we were called shrill before. We were called hysterical before. We were outside agitators before. We've been name-called a thousand different times and it's always because we're pushing for progress. And that we need to do our very best to not allow our voices to be silenced because that progress is important," Rosas said.
Rosas said no new prohibitions have yet been applied to current YWCA work, but she and other domestic violence advocates have said they're uncertain of what the future may hold.
Melanie Hooker, executive director of the Domestic Violence Coalition in Van Buren County, said the new guidelines have been confusing and leave organizations like hers without a clear path forward to provide equitable services and help all victims.
“I cannot ask for services for women, for people with disabilities, for LGBTQ, for any underserved minority population. I can't use those words anymore," Hooker said. "I can't call domestic violence and sexual assault a social issue. I can't do all that. So, how do I do that?"
Other banned activities for OVW recipients include providing services to undocumented people and framing domestic violence as a social justice issue. At the Domestic Violence Coalition, Hooker said those new provisions are already impacting the community's ability to engage with services.
"There's a whole population of of people who are undocumented that are terrified to walk into the office. So, I have a Spanish-speaking advocate that I can't get her to walk in the office — anybody to go in the office. Our numbers went from approximately 51 a year to zero. We've had zero Spanish-speaking clients," Hooker said.
Hooker added that it's also unclear whether the same grant opportunities OVW had offered in the past will be available anymore, or whether they will exist in the same form.
One large OVW grant Michigan has historically relied upon is the STOP (Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women formula grant program. The STOP grant is awarded to states and territories to help create and enhance law enforcement and prosecution strategies for violent crimes against women and fund victim services for cases involving violent crimes against women.
The grant has specific requirements for how much funding must go to law enforcement, prosecutors and community organizations that provide victim services.
In 2024, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services received $4,615,493 in STOP grant funding. By law, 30% of that funding was distributed among community-based victim services organizations like the Domestic Violence Coalition.
Hooker said with new OVW prohibitions and executive orders banning "gender ideology," she's uncertain about the future of the grant. For now, Hooker said her organization is planning to move away from relying on grants like these and focus more on direct community partnerships.
“You just adapt, right? So, we're going to provide services to law enforcement to assist them on callouts to ensure that everybody is safe and secure. That's what the plan is," Hooker said.
Hooker and other advocates say it’s still unclear exactly how the new restrictions will be implemented and whether they impact grants that have already been awarded. For now, she says she's planning for the possibility that federal victim services grants might not exist like they used to.
