State College-based Centre Safe has joined peer organizations statewide in voicing frustration with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal of flat funding for rape crisis centers in Pennsylvania’s 2026-27 budget, and urging lawmakers to bolster support.
Shapiro’s proposed budget, unveiled on Feb. 3, includes a $12.1 million line item for the state’s 47 rape crisis centers, the same amount allocated in 2025. With minimal to no increases over the last decade, the organizations say another round of flat funding amounts to a cut.
“It’s really what message is being sent across the state to victims and survivors, and to the staff who work day in and day out to try to support survivors,” said Jennifer Pencek, executive director of Centre Safe. “And really, when we have flat funding, it means that we have work even even harder to kind of fill gaps that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
“So, in my mind and in the minds of all directors and centers across the state, there really is no reason why victims and survivors continue to have to not just wait in line, but be the last in line. And that’s very much what it what it feels like, that victims and survivors once again have to say, ‘Please, you know, can we have just a little bit more funding?’ That just should never be the case.”
The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect, which works with each of the state’s rape crisis centers serving all 67 counties, had called on Shapiro to propose a $12.5 million increase to their line item in the Department of Human Services’ budget. The funding increase, they say, would reflect the true cost of providing trauma-informed care and could reduce wait times, ensure round-the-clock hotline coverage, stabilize staffing and expand prevention efforts.
“This budget moment mattered deeply to survivors and to the people who show up for them every day,” Joyce Lukima, Coalition Director and chief operating officer of PCAR, said in a statement. “By not including this investment, we are once again asking survivors to wait, when healing cannot wait.”
For five consecutive years, funding for the centers remained at $11.92 million before a $250,000 increase in 2025, additional money that was appreciated but did little to help sustain services amid rising costs and growing needs, according to PCAR.
Statewide last year, rape crisis centers served more than 25,000 people, including nearly 6,000 children, answered more than 17,000 hotline calls and provided 119,000 hours of counseling.
Centre Safe is a “dual center,” providing support to survivors of sexual assault as well as domestic violence and stalking. On average, it supports about 200 sexual assault survivors and 900 domestic violence survivors each year, along with providing emergency shelter for roughly 200 more individuals and families, while its hotline receives 1,200 to 1,500 calls annually, Pencek said.
“Those are just the people who have reached out to Centre Safe for help, not to mention the countless others that maybe just aren’t ready or maybe aren’t aware of services or maybe don’t have access to services,” Pencek said. “So when we get this funding that, frankly, should be a given, it’s to help those folks as well who just haven’t been able to access us yet.”
Centre Safe advocates are dispatched to hospitals at any time day or night and are side-by-side with victims through sexual assault or domestic violence exams and throughout the healing process Pencek said.
That includes going with them to court hearings, helping them navigate the legal system and providing counseling and advocacy, among other resources.
“I can’t speak for every center, but I would be shocked to find a center that just has endless hours of time on their hands,” Pencek said. “So I am going to go out on a limb and say every single center across the state is very much in extremely high demand. We’re certainly not seeing drastic reductions in acts of harm against folks, unfortunately. We really hope for that day when centers like Centre Safe aren’t needed. But we are not nearly to that point yet.”
DHS line item funding for rape crisis centers is allocated to PCAR, which then distributes it to the centers using a funding formula that incorporates population density, individuals served and service hours provided based on a rolling three-year average, Lukima told StateCollege.com.
She added that PCAR also receives a small amount in mostly federal pass-through money from the state that it then distributes to the centers, but that the DHS line item is “by a very large percentage the largest funding stream.”
“Budgets are reflections of our values,” Lukima said. “Pennsylvania now faces a choice: continue underfunding the systems survivors rely on, or make a meaningful investment in safety, dignity and healing. Survivors deserve more than reassurance—they deserve action.”
PCAR and centers statewide stressed that the budget process is just beginning and called on legislators to secure more funding. Organizations and community members can sign an open letter to the General Assembly at pcar.org/open-letter.
“We are obligated to provide these services 24/7,” Pencek said. “We just need the other side to hold up their end of the bargain.”
“It’s not about calling out one person or one party. In my mind, and the mind of so many others, there is plenty of blame to go around. There’s so much finger-pointing that happens in the political space. Really, the finger-pointing needs to stop, or people need to point the finger at themselves, because everyone plays a part in this. But there’s time to fix it. We just need the people in positions of power to believe in victims and survivors and to choose to fix it.”
