As Sexual Assault Awareness Month Begins, NORA Warns of Funding Crisis

NORA, which stands for Nurture, Outreach, Resiliency, and Advocacy and signifies "honor," serves more than 2,000 individuals annually through 24-hour crisis response, counseling, advocacy, and prevention education across Western and Southwest Riverside County. Founded in 1973 as the Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center, the nonprofit takes a community-centered approach to ending sexual violence. This Sexual Assault Awareness Month, it is navigating a funding crisis that threatens the very services survivors depend on.

"Progress is never accidental," NORA CEO Adriane Lamar Snider said in a statement after Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson issued her a Women's History Month proclamation in March. "It is built — deliberately, collectively, and with courage."

In any given week, NORA is operating around the clock as a crisis response agency. Advocates answer crisis calls at all hours, accompany survivors to forensic exams, coordinate with law enforcement and child welfare, and provide immediate crisis intervention. At the same time, clinicians deliver ongoing trauma-informed counseling while the prevention team is in classrooms across Southwest Riverside County.

Each week, the team manages well over 500 staff hours across crisis response, counseling, prevention education, and advocacy, plus hundreds more hours on operations, compliance and governance.

For 53 years, that infrastructure has ensured no survivor has to navigate trauma alone.

But over the past year, the funding that sustains it has grown increasingly unstable.

Funding Shifts

the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and related state-administered grants are among the core funding streams that sustain victim services nationwide. For NORA, the past year has brought real reductions and outright losses across those streams. Some grants have been cut by double-digit percentages. Others have been eliminated entirely.

"Because our work depends on these funding streams, reductions do not just affect budgets — they disrupt the entire system that supports survivors," NORA told The Raincross Gazette. "This is not theoretical. It is happening now across California, and our region is feeling the impact."

When funding falls short, the first casualty is staffing, and as positions are reduced or frozen, waitlists grow.

"We never turn survivors away in crisis," NORA said, "but without adequate funding, we cannot always get them into ongoing care when they need it most."

NORA has already reduced staffing, and every lost position, Lamar Snider said, represents hundreds of hours of direct service that disappear from the community.

Who Feels It First

When services are strained, rural and low-income communities feel it first and most deeply. Survivors in those areas already face barriers, including limited transportation, fewer mental health providers and fewer local resources. Any delay compounds those challenges.

NORA said youth and immigrant communities are also disproportionately impacted. "When prevention programming is reduced, schools in under-resourced areas lose education on safety, consent, and how to seek help," the organization told The Raincross Gazette.

The funding instability has been "particularly difficult for outreach and community education," the organization said, "often leaving schools and other community-based agencies vulnerable as NORA lacks the capacity to send or co-locate team members in areas of need."

When Safety Planning Is Delayed

Safety planning, which includes assessing immediate risk, securing safe housing and navigating restraining orders, is often the difference between stability and continued harm.

When the system is stretched, even a short delay can have serious consequences. A survivor who has just left an unsafe environment may wait longer for critical support. That can mean days without stable housing, without protection, and without guidance during one of the most vulnerable moments of their life.

"Crisis does not wait, and neither should safety planning," NORA said. "But without sufficient staffing, the risk of delay increases, and that puts lives at risk."

The Building Hope Campaign

In response, NORA has launched the Building Hope Campaign — a community fundraising effort aimed at raising $250,000 to stabilize the staffing infrastructure required to sustain 24-hour crisis response and ongoing counseling.

Lamar Snider is clear about what the campaign is and is not. "This is not about expansion," she said. "It is about protecting essential services."

Success, one year from now, looks like this: no counseling waitlists, 24-hour crisis response fully intact, and prevention education continuing in schools without interruption.

The campaign is also a call to action beyond donations, calling for stable, multi-year public funding, state-level advocacy to address volatility in victim services funding, and private sector partnerships including employer matching programs.

"For more than 50 years, this community has trusted NORA to be there in moments of crisis," the organization said. "Now we are asking the community to stand with us. Because sustaining this work is not just about funding a program. It is about protecting people, families, and the safety of our community."

The Building Hope Campaign launches as NORA marks Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It also comes on the heels of a recent recognition for the organization's leadership: on March 20, Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina honored Lamar Snider as one of 11 Women of Distinction from the First Supervisorial District at his annual Women of Distinction Celebration, citing her work on behalf of survivors in the region.

More information: For more information about NORA and the Building Hope Campaign, visit callnora.org.