FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2005

Contact: Ash Kosiewicz
512.447.7707 ext. 376
akosiewicz@trla.org

TRLA "Steps to Safety" Crime Victims Project Receives $220,000 from State Attorney General

Attorney General Greg Abbott to announce crime victim assistance funding recipients today as Austin Police Department statistics show annual increases in reported acts of sexual violence in Travis County since 2001

AUSTIN, Texas - Pledging continued financial support for a critical social service program, the Texas Office of the Attorney General has awarded Texas RioGrande Legal Aid one of its largest grants to help many of the state's poorest crime victims.

Attorney General Greg Abbott will hold a news conference today at 11:45 a.m at the Austin Children's Shelter to announce recipients of the state's victim assistance grant funding. The one-year, $220,000 grant will support TRLA's Steps to Safety Project, a program serving low-income and underserved victims of domestic and sexual violence.

The project, through the work of social workers in four Texas cities, offers coordinated legal and social services including crisis intervention, stabilization and safety planning to crime victims and their families."

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is helping real people overcome real problems," said Attorney General Abbott. "Together we are helping crime victims as they walk the road to recovery."

As statistics across the state demonstrate a noticeable increase in acts of family violence, TRLA social workers offer a variety of services, including helping victims apply for crime victims compensation. With TRLA staff already serving communities in Austin, Edinburg, El Paso, and San Antonio, the funds allow the project to place an additional social worker in Corpus Christi to better serve victims of crime in South Texas. "

A new social worker in Corpus Christi is critical given 90 percent of our cases involve family law," said Carlos Aguinaga, TRLA Corpus Christi office manager. "The civil legal system can be extremely confusing to clients, and the benefit of having a social worker to assist clients on an interpersonal level as well as guide them through the legal maze is incalculable."

Between September 2004 and June 2005, project social workers assisted more than 1,500 new crime victims and helped clients obtain approximately $295,000 from the state's crime victims compensation fund. In addition, staff made referrals to help clients access community resources including housing, job training, food stamps and Medicaid.

According to statistics from the Austin Police Department and the Travis County Sheriff's Office, reported sexual assaults in Travis County have increased every year since 2001 - between 2001 and 2004, reported assaults increased 32 percent. In 2003, the APD responded to 17,085 family violence incidents - a 10 percent increase from 2002.

Two-thirds of clients thus far helped under the Steps to Safety project have been Hispanic women under the age of 18. A 2000 Washington State Domestic Violence Fatality Review study found that the risk of domestic violence homicide among Hispanic women is 2.5 times greater than that of non-Hispanic women.

quality civil legal assistance and related educational services.

Additional family violence statistics:

* According to the San Antonio police department, reports of family violence have increased over the last five years, with 6,900 reports filed in 1999 and 11,650 in 2004. Arrests for domestic violence assaults totaled 1,768 in 1999 and 2,300 in 2004.

* In 2002, the El Paso Police Department recorded more than 6,000 cases of domestic violence, and made almost 2,500 domestic violence arrests.

* A 2000 study funded by the Family Violence Prevention Fund found that women in low-income households experience higher rates of violence by an intimate partner than women in higher-income households.