Portal To Hope, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Police Chief Jack Buckley and the Medford Police Department hosted a community forum, “Talk Priorities With Legislators”, with Maeve Kidney, Director of Policy & Legislative Affairs – Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA), and Nithya Badrinath, Policy Director – Jane Doe, Inc.; and State Representatives Christine Barber, Paul Donato, Steven Ultrino and State Senator Sal DiDomenico shared their time to address issues impacting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking crimes.
Important discussion was focused on the fact that agencies across the Commonwealth, incuding Portal To Hope, are facing a drastic 42% budget cut – effective July 1, 2026 – which will cause closure of program services and significant delays in serving domestic violence crime victims. To ensure that services are maintained, MOVA has asked the Massachusetts Legislature to create a $13.8 million MOVA TRUST Line.
Agencies serving violent crime victims have long relied-upon funding support under the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) – Crime Victims Fund. The Crime Victims Fund is not supported by taxpayer dollars. Rather, the fund is supported by federal criminal fines and penalties. Because federal funds have been diverted away from the Crime Victims Fund over the last few years, federal funding is no longer reliable, and states have had to look at bridging the gaps in funding to continue to protect domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
The TRUST Line is essential to sustaining victim services in Massachusetts. Without the support of our Massachusetts legislators and Governor Healey in creating a dedicated TRUST Line, Portal To Hope will be forced to eliminateour emergency shelter program, after-hours hotline, youth programs and other advocacy care as of this July.
Portal To Hope needs your help! To learn more and to get involved in supporting the MOVA TRUST Line, please call Portal To Hope at (781) 338-7678.