The Barzilai Foundation is proud to announce a new apprenticeship program with DAIS (Domestic Abuse Intervention Services) in Madison, Wisconsin. DAIS is the lone domestic violence shelter in Dane County, the municipality that includes Madison and covers a population of over a half a million people.
Even as the one source for support for these individuals fleeing domestic violence, DAIS’ services are well below capacity due to staffing shortages that stem from insufficient funding. Hundreds of victims – and in many cases their children as well – go unserved as a result, and the infrastructure of support available to these victims goes underused without DAIS providing support and connecting them to resources.
The new program will have layers of impact. As an organization, DAIS will be able to level up and meet the community needs at a greater level. For the individuals they serve, the support they receive can be life-changing and create better futures for both the victims and their children. Support and resource are critical to overcoming both the immediate and long-term impact of domestic violence. For example, single mothers fleeing domestic abuse who gain access to transitional housing are significantly more likely to gain employment and rediscover independence.
Executive Director, Shannon Barry said, “We are just now learning the extent of cuts to the VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funding for the 2024-2025 Fiscal year. Our current grant award is 63.4% lower than the prior year. While we are doing our best to absorb this loss through realigning and combining staff positions, fundraising, and increasing caseloads, it is inevitable that without new sources of support, our staffing limitations will result in a reduction in services, a reduction in clients served, and will negatively impact our ability to connect clients to the services and resources they need.”
The apprenticeship program will provide recent social work graduates a path to starting their careers while also significantly amplify DAIS’ impact in the community. We anticipate that with this added capacity, DAIS can expand their reach and support many women and children in Dane County who previously did not have access to these resources.
Faye Zemel, DAIS Director of Services added, “The addition of two new Case Managers does so much to improve outcomes, increase accessibility for our client and increase our reach in the community. Once fully trained and integrated into the DAIS team, each of our new hires will have a caseload of 20-25 clients a month, or around 500- 600 families a year. Maybe the most impactful change of all is our ability to reinstate mobile advocacy with the addition of our two new hires. We have already begun setting up mobile crisis intervention in eleven sites across Dane County.”
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