Jimmy Meagher
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Good afternoon, and happy Saint Patrick's Day.
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My name is Jimmy Marr.
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My pronouns are he, him, his, and I'm senior policy director for Safe Horizon, the nation's largest nonprofit victim assistance organization.
5:32:06
Each year, we help 250,000 Yorkers who've experienced violence and abuse.
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I've submitted my full written testimony, so we'll focus on a few points.
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First, as you've heard, nonprofits continue to face late contracting issues, which have detrimental effects on the communities that you all serve.
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The city must hold each agency accountable to pay invoices on time.
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Additionally, mocks needs to be adequately funded.
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Given the mounting concerns emanating from Washington, we must get the city's house in order.
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Second, we urge the council to restore and expand initiative and discretionary funding that organizations like Safe Horizon rely on each year.
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Specifically, we are asking the council to invest in the Dove initiative, the immigrant opportunities initiative, SAVE initiative, and other initiatives contracted through the HRA DSS.
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Currently, 180 organizations use Dove funding to address domestic violence in the community, and Safe Horizon oversees and administers this entire project.
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Dove directs funds to the organizations rooted in community that provide necessary and life saving supports to survivors.
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This is especially critical for survivors who are undocumented and or LGBTQI plus who may fear seeking help from government systems under this current administration.
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Third, funding for immigration legal services and wraparound services.
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The mayor has prioritized assisting migrants with completing asylum applications, but nonprofit civil legal providers with expertise in complex immigration cases have not seen equitable investments in our services, namely more comprehensive legal screenings and long term representation and assistance.
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This work is especially vital as violent anti immigrant policies are issued by the federal government.
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When we don't invest in programming, we leave immigrant New Yorkers vulnerable to trafficking, exploitation, and violence, which leaves us all safe.
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We urge the council to enhance funding for immigration and civil legal providers.
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And, additionally, Safe Rising is seeking new speakers initiative funding for our street work project, our runaway homeless youth program, since we've experienced an increase in the number of undocumented and migrant young people seeking our support and our assistance.
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Lastly, we sit on the steering committee of the Family Homelessness Coalition or FHC.
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We encourage the council and administration to work together to implement f f a FHC's recommendations.
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Given the current federal landscape, we urge the city to do everything to empower organizations and programs working to end homelessness, poverty, and violence.
