The Iowa City-based Domestic Violence Intervention Program is launching a council that will shape its new comprehensive sexual assault services. DVIP agreed to provide these services after the University of Iowa announced in early April that it is closing the Rape Victim Advocacy Program. RVAP’s last day of operation is Sept. 30. Between now and then, DVIP’s new advisory council will determine how it will fill the gap.
Alta Medea, the director of community engagement at the DVIP, said the council will guide how it incorporates sexual assault services into existing programming. A report from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center suggests that when services are combined, sexual assault programs and staff tend to receive less funding than domestic violence counterparts. Medea said DVIP’s new sexual violence services will have a separate department with a separate director, staff and fundraising council. The advisory council, she said, will help avoid one service becoming a priority over the other.
Both RVAP and DVIP serve the same eight-county region in southeastern Iowa, including Cedar, Des Moines, Henry, Iowa, Johnson, Lee, Van Buren and Washington counties. While the advisory council will review policies for the region, DVIP is organizing county-specific working groups.
“Those working groups will be made up of individuals who do the work; who refer to sexual violence programming; who support victims within those areas,” Medea said.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office put out a request for proposals to fill the gap left by RVAP. DVIP has applied for these funds and is banking on them to cover the cost of these new services. Medea said they don’t expect to hear about the grant until the end of June. Still, they are already taking applications for the new director and cross-training existing staff to support and refer victims to appropriate programs.
