Minnesota restores funding for domestic abuse services

Fillmore County’s Detlefson worked for
free because the abuse doesn’t stop

More certainty in Fillmore County for domestic violence intervention, now that Minnesota has, once again, restored funding for domestic abuse services there.  

Anne Detlefson has done domestic abuse outreach in the county for years. For a long stretch, she worked without pay when the state cut off funding from the county. 

And that’s part of the business, unfortunately, says she says.

“There’s always the threat of changes in funding,” Detlefson said. “That’s always been something that’s loomed over all agencies in Minnesota that depend on public funding.”

And when that funding goes away, says Detlefson, it doesn’t mean the abuse victims go away. 

Funding stopped for the domestic abuse outreach in 2011 when the state faced a massive state deficit.  

“It’s dangerous to not have domestic violence programming out there because, the truth is, people die,” she said.

At one point, Detlefson was making hundreds of pairs of earrings to sell to offset costs of providing the outreach. She says the restoration of funding for the program now gives it some certainty moving forward.

“Public awareness and education (are) important, and having money to fund those types of things, so that we would be looking more at prevention,” she said. “I think it would save the state a lot of moeny.”