Philadelphia’s only rape crisis center will continue offering some services — but with less staff — amid state budget impasse

Philadelphia’s only rape crisis center will continue offering some of its services — but with significantly reduced staff — as the state budget impasse has shaken up operations and spurred layoffs at the Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence. The center is known by the initials of its former name, Women Organized Against Rape: WOAR.

Gabriella Fontan, WOAR’s new executive director, said Saturday in an email to The Inquirer that services like crisis counseling, court and forensic rape exam accompaniment, and advocacy services, including WOAR’s Survivor Advocacy Program, would continue “without interruption” beyond Friday, which was the final day of work for many employees who had been notified earlier in the week that they would be laid off.

Remaining staff members, interns, or volunteers will be available to work the center’s 24-7 hotline, though after midnight and on weekends calls may be answered by other agencies serving survivors, such as NOVA Bucks and Delaware County Victim Assistance Center, Fontan said. Through Monday, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) will be working the hotline.

Counseling and therapy services, as well as prevention and education resources, will continue through Oct. 17, said Fontan, who was announced as WOAR’s new executive director roughly a week before layoffs took place.

WOAR, which was founded in 1971 as one of the first rape crisis centers in the United States, underwent rapid personnel changes last week after a majority of employees received notices Tuesday that they would be laid off, largely due to the state budget crisis.

Harrisburg lawmakers are more than three months late in passing a state budget, hurting WOAR and other rape crisis centers that receive money from the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), which gets funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

Joanne Strauss, president of WOAR’s board of directors, said Monday that the organization’s ability to offer such services as crisis response, therapy, or advocacy would be “severely impacted.”

“This devastating disruption leaves survivors without access to critical 24-7 hotline services, therapy and counseling, court and medical accompaniment, and advocacy, and it leaves the community without prevention education services,” Strauss added.

It remains unclear how WOAR is able to maintain many of its programs without sufficient funding from the state, and Fontan did not immediately respond to a request for clarification Saturday. But the center’s Instagram page indicates it has received “community support” for the hotline and encourages members of the public to “keep donating.”

But the fact that a majority of employees were laid off suggests services will be on the shoulders of only a handful of workers. Fontan did not indicate how many employees remain at WOAR.

Mariah Gallagher, a Philadelphia-based trauma therapist and owner of the Relational Realm therapy practice, said any disruptions to services are likely to have a “ripple effect” for survivors.

Across Pennsylvania, rape crisis centers support 27,000 people affected by sexual violence every year, center leaders, including Strauss from WOAR, wrote in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star last month, noting that the centers “can’t hold out much longer.”

“I think the impact is more than just ‘We don’t have a place to go right after the crisis,’ but more so we don’t have access to all these, like, relational tools and these, like, healing tools, and these people who care about us,” Gallagher said.

In an effort to protect WOAR, the center has rolled out a “Bridging The Gap Campaign to Save WOAR” on social media, directing supporters to reach out to Philadelphia’s state representatives and senators, donate, and share the Instagram post about the campaign.

“Pennsylvania’s 48 rape crisis centers are in crisis!” the center wrote on Instagram. “WOAR is included in that number. What can you do to help?”

Employees at WOAR are feeling the effects of their center being in jeopardy.

Isabelle Beatus, a former crisis and court advocate and WOAR employee who received a layoff notice Tuesday, said she and her colleagues were “feeling the sadness” on Friday as they wound down their responsibilities on their final day of work.

“There’s so much sadness about how everything has kind of gone down, and just not being able to work as a team anymore, and just the lack of services, or even if we’re able to [work] at some level of operation with some services, it’s just not the same,” Beatus said.

Beatus and other employees told The Inquirer last week that they were most concerned about the gap in services and continuity of care for survivors.

In addition to WOAR, survivors can access support from neighboring county organizations or programs at local colleges or universities. SECRET, Drexel University’s sexual education group, is hosting an hours-long march from West Philly to City Hall on Friday to call for the restoration of funds to WOAR and other rape crisis centers.

The City of Philadelphia does not offer direct services for survivors but can “serve as a bridge to services and provide information and resources” and lists several resources for survivors on websites for the city’s office of domestic violence strategies and office of the victim advocate, Sharon Gallagher, senior director of communications for the city managing director’s office, said in a statement Friday.

The city has been in communication with WOAR and is “concerned about their current situation,” Gallagher said, noting that WOAR has updated the city on the services it intends to continue providing for the public.

“We appreciate their efforts to ensure that services to sexual assault survivors maintain intact, to the best of their ability,” Gallagher said.