For decades, the Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, also known as WOAR, Women Organized Against Rape, has stood staunchly by the side of the city’s sexual violence survivors. WOAR staff help survivors testify in courtrooms, hold their hands through forensic exams, and host a 24-hour crisis hotline valued by many. This week, those advocates will have to walk away.
WOAR will pause services and lay off staff on Friday, following state lawmakers’ failure to pass a now three-month-overdue budget, a decision that workers say will reverberate throughout the city and impact the lives of college students who have come to rely on the organization’s free, trauma-informed services.
“These services are vital to the well-being of our most vulnerable populations, and the decision to reduce our staff has been incredibly difficult,” said Joanne Strauss, president of WOAR’s board of directors…