Lewiston Safe Voices opens resource center amid worry of federal budget cuts
May 3, 2025
Reporting by Joe Charpentier and Kendra Caruso | Read the full story at the Sun Journal
LEWISTON— Local nonprofit Safe Voices celebrated its grand opening of a new comprehensive resource center on Lisbon Street Thursday as the organization fears federal funding cuts could cause a budget shortfall dismantling key services in the region.
The organization, started by a group of women who came together around a kitchen table in the 1970s to address local domestic violence, celebrated the milestone Thursday with a grand opening and open house, according to Executive Director Rebecca Austin.
That kitchen-table effort has led to advocacy and support for many people leaving abusive situations in the community over the last five decades, Austin said, support that is crucial to people safely leaving unsafe situations, she said. Last year alone, Safe Voices helped nearly 2,800 people — the highest in its history.
The new center includes a program hub with survivor-focused services like a community kitchen, family waiting room and computer stations, as well as a “boutique” offering free donated clothing and supplies to survivors restarting their lives. The new dedicated training space will host sessions for law enforcement, health care providers and advocates, all of which will reinforce Safe Voices’ mission to strengthen local systems of safety and accountability.
“The vision for this building is like the highest evolution of what (a domestic violence resource center) can do in their community,” Austin said.
The project was made possible by a $1.5 million capital campaign supported by more than 160 donors and a $460,000 federal grant that ensures full ADA accessibility.
However, the unveiling comes on the heels of worries that possible funding cuts at the federal level could shut down crucial programs within the organization, Austin said. The need for Safe Voices’ services has only grown in the last five years, seeing a 54% increase in the number of people reaching out for help.
If federal funding ends by Oct. 1, the beginning of the organization’s fiscal year, it could be looking at a $1.5 million shortfall.
Preparing for the worst, leaders say such a reduction could mean cutting 16 staff positions (roughly 40% of its workforce), close the state’s only safe house for victims of sex trafficking, close its Oxford County office, switch to assisting people only by appointments instead of people also walking in off the street, pull back its criminal justice advocacy work, and end its community education efforts, Austin said.
Those cuts include eliminating funding for a domestic violence and sexual assault prosecutor in Oxford County, she said.
Abusive relationships are about power and control, in which one person uses their power to control another person and their ability to live freely and navigate their own lives, said Grace Kendall, director of development and engagement.
“It’s like there’s all these myriad tactics. … They’re all aimed at making the survivor’s world smaller,” she said. “And that’s one of the hallmarks: ‘How do I make this person’s world smaller’ so it’s just the survivor and their abuser.”
A common form of this is physical and sexual violence, but often the most lasting impacts to a victim can be the emotional abuse they endured.
Often staff and advocates are well adept at seeing through an abuser’s manipulation tactics, she said. Some women do not realize that what they are experiencing is abuse until they sit down and talk to an advocate.
Safe Voices helps people in all kinds of situations and anyone is encouraged to reach out for help with the promise that they won’t be criticized, she said. Advocates with the organization are well trained and are not surprised or shocked by victims’ stories.
“The first thing that you should expect is that you’re going to get nonjudgmental support,” she said. “I think the second thing you should expect is that you’re going to get someone who has heard a lot and so they’re also not going to be shocked, they’re not going to be stumped. …
“They’re going to have a response for pretty much anything that you share. They are going to know how to support you in that moment, which is something a lot of survivors don’t get in any other place in their life.”
“The vision for this building is like the highest evolution of what (a domestic violence resource center) can do in their community.”
– Safe Voices Executive Director Rebecca Austin
Advocates and Safe Voices staff will help victims develop a safety plan, working with them to strategize the best ways to navigate the community and public spaces where they may encounter their abuser.
A prominent hurdle to victims leaving their abuser is the housing market. Public housing and rent voucher programs have long waiting lists as rising prices and a short supply has made obtaining housing more difficult, she said.
Along with increased market costs, it can be a difficult venture to leave an abuser who may control the finances, she said.
Safe Voices has long partnered with federal and state governments to provide resources that neither branch of government could do itself, Kendall said. The funds are not a handout, they are payment for providing support that ultimately saves lives.
“We are providing a safety net that the government isn’t able to …” she said. “It’s a partnership.”
Austin said the services Safe Voices provides help confront a problem that at times leads to death; roughly half of the homicides in Maine are from instances of domestic violence, she said.
“Year after year we are seeing that number, and one of the things that we know can change that and can impact either better prosecution outcomes, better engagement with law enforcement, better connection to resources and supports is availability of advocacy services,” she said.
“Advocates are helping to make the way our system partners interact with these cases easier and better. We are helping survivors leave and flee when that’s what they need to do to seek safety. For me, it always comes down to homicide prevention and safety.”
Anyone experiencing abuse is encouraged to reach out to Safe Voices through its 24-hour, 7-days-a-week hotline at 1-800-559-2927.
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