When Heaven Strothers learned two of her children had been sexually abused by her then-husband, it felt like “the floor shattered and fell out from underneath” her.
Local legislators submitted bills to increase community notice of when a high-level sex offender would be moving into an area and increased the distance those offenders would have to be from schools and child care centers.
Despite seeing increased need, agencies in Washington that work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault face layoffs and reduced services as their budgets.