Ohio adds $1 million for 55 domestic violence shelters and plans grants pairing victim advocates with police
Gov. Mike DeWine announced the money on Oct. 22 with new state data showing a domestic violence charge in just over half of Ohio's violent crime arrests. Each shelter the state recognizes receives a one-time grant of $18,000.
Ohio violent crime arrests that included a domestic violence charge
Columbus. Each of the 55 domestic violence shelters recognized by Ohio's Office of Criminal Justice Services will receive a one-time grant of $18,000, part of an additional $1 million Gov. Mike DeWine directed the office to set aside, his office announced on Oct. 22. The money is for immediate shelter and the critical needs of family violence victims and their dependents.
The governor also told the office, part of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, to start three grant programs: one for ballistic shields for officers who answer high-risk calls such as domestic violence, one to train officers in lethality assessments, and one to expand co-responder partnerships that pair victim service advocates with police agencies.
What the state's data showed
The announcement came near the end of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and followed an analysis by the office of nearly 50 years of computerized criminal history: about 2 million violent crime arrests in Ohio from 1974 to 2023. Just over half of them included a domestic violence charge, and 70 percent of the people arrested for domestic violence were repeat offenders.
The share has not improved, the governor's office said, according to Spectrum News 1: it was 54 percent from 2014 to 2023 and 56 percent over the last five years. About half of the state's 88 counties have domestic violence crime rates above the state average.
“Anecdotally, we suspected that domestic violence was among the most frequent violent crimes in the state, and this data confirms it.”
Advocates at the scene
Lethality assessments are research based tools that estimate a survivor's risk of further violence, and survivors found to be at high risk are referred at once to a domestic violence program and an advocate, ABC 6 reported. The co-responder grants would pay for training and staff so that trauma informed help is available at the scene.
The Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board will also write a statewide standard for how officers respond to and investigate domestic violence, drawing on a new law enforcement handbook from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, the statewide coalition, prepared with the state office. The network's executive director, Mary O'Doherty, said its member shelter programs would receive the $18,000 grants.
The announcement gave no amounts or application dates for the three new grant programs. Separately, the office announced on Oct. 27 about $4 million in federal Family Violence Prevention and Services Act grants for emergency shelter and supportive services, funding 64 projects in 46 counties from July 2026 through June 2027, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.
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