Author: Lisa Rivera

Lisa Rivera is the president and CEO of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). She is a career public interest attorney who has spent over 20 years working with and advocating for survivors of domestic violence. After law school, Rivera worked at the National District Attorney’s Association, where she assisted in developing trainings on domestic violence, sexual assault, and forensic evidence. She also co-directed the Domestic Violence Clinical Center in conjunction with St. John’s University School of Law, where she was an adjunct professor.

Supporting Domestic Violence Survivors Means Protecting Their Options

We can and must aspire to a future in which domestic violence survivors have options beyond the civil and criminal legal systems. But in the meantime, our government leaders must protect the options that do exist.

Those existing options are largely funded by the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) which, since its inception in 1984, has supported survivors all over the country by funding services that assist with shelter and housing access, legal representation, counseling and more via the Crime Victims Fund. But with those funds declining over time, so has available VOCA funding. And while the U.S. Department of Justice is working on a solution to this problem, any action they take won’t restart that crucial funding flow to individual states for years.