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April is a month of recognition for several important issues. Sexual Assault Awareness is one of them. An Illinois organization is bringing this offense to the forefront.
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Carrie Ward, the executive director of the coalition, said there are number of programs taking place this month.
“Ranging from things like clothesline project where survivors are able to decorate shirts and the acknowledgement of the assaults they ve experienced,” she said, “to events like walk a mile in her shoes that are community awareness events that try to especially raise awareness for men regarding sexual violence.”
Carrie Ward, the executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the budget impasse led to a loss of institutional knowledge in rape crisis centers across the state.
Rape crisis centers are facing many hardships during the pandemic. Many are struggling to maintain services their clients rely on and balance budgets. Center leaders say it’s a repeat of what they went through during the Illinois budget impasse.
In January, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority put out a study about how the two-year state budget impasse affected rape crisis centers. Many social services went without state funding, and rape crisis centers had to find ways to adapt. The study reveals criminal justice advocacy dropped by 25%, while individual counseling across the state fell even more. The effects were worse for rural rape crisis centers.
Years Later, Illinois Rape Crisis Centers Still Recovering From Budget Impasse peoriapublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peoriapublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - State lawmakers hoped to work on many plans in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic cut their session short. Now, there s only three laws going into effect on Friday.
Residents can expect to see a price cap on insulin, stronger protections for survivors of sexual assault, and a new option to help law enforcement with missing person investigations.
Gov. JB Pritzker joined Dr. Ngozi Ezike, and many advocates to sign the monumental price cap bill into law on January 24. Any patients under the state s insurance plan needing insulin will only have to pay $100 per month for their prescription.
The lead sponsor, Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), emphasized this law could help 1.3 million Illinoisans suffering from diabetes. This also makes Illinois only the second state to cap co-pays for insulin under state insurance.
Representatives of the Illinois State Police say the backlog of forensic evidence in Illinois has been reduced significantly, but the support of lawmakers is needed to further address delays and deficiencies in the process. Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly made those comments to the Illinois Senate Public Health Committee during a Dec. 10 hearing on the DNA backlog and evidence processing. According to Kelly, since 2019, ISP s Division of Forensic Services has reduced the number of biology DNA pending assignments, referred to as the DNA backlog, by 48 percent. In March of 2019, the backlog had 9,829 pending assignments, which has fallen to 4,857 pending assignments as of November 2020.