The financial struggles faced by Charleston’s Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service have grown and gained interest since a $35,000 loan was taken in October to meet payroll in the absence of federal funds.

“This has been the most difficult year by far,” SACIS executive director Bonnie Buckley said.

Buckley said the agency, which operates on a reimbursement basis, has never experienced a financial delay of comparable scale.

“It feels like we’re just hanging on by the skin of our teeth every month,” she said.

Loans

In addition to anxiety over making payroll and meeting costs, including rent paid to the university and telephone expenses, Buckley said SACIS has until the end of the month to pay back the loan – plus interest – that has been building for the past three months.

She said a subsequent loan may be needed to support the agency in the future. In order to pay the interest, SACIS will have to look to sources other than the grant money they receive, as the funds are subcontracted for specific purposes that do not include the practice of paying off interest.

“At this present time, we have enough to pay the loan back, but we wouldn’t have enough money to make salary unless we get our December reimbursements,” Buckley said. “In past years, within a few days, we could have our reimbursements so we’d have enough money to pay the staff. This year, for the first time ever, we don’t get those right away because our state coalition is waiting to receive federal and state funds, and they just don’t know when that’s going to happen.”

State Funding

Federal relief for social service agencies has been slow to come in the months following Gov. Quinn’s cuts to the state budget that dissolved a projected 68 percent of finances allocated to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which supports SACIS along with 32 other crisis centers and 16 satellite locations statewide.

Quinn’s original proposals in June would have left the agency three people short with enough funds to continue operating for a month and a half. As some money has trickled in since ultimately reducing the magnitude of the cut, the SACIS staff remains hopeful they will receive the federal aid money guaranteed to them.

The center largely depends on federal and state funds granted to ICASA, which has been rendered unable to distribute advances in reimbursements while waiting to receive federal stimulus grants that lawmakers have approved but not released.

This has forced the agency to make emergency withdrawals from a second account that contains money from fundraisers and donations designated to aid the Charleston community, as well as a third account specifically for the service’s sister-center in Robinson, Buckley said.

The agency’s primary account is designated for grants subcontracted by ICASA that are normally used to pay employees’ salaries.

As ICASA waits for word from the state comptroller, few funds have circulated to aid SACIS in its struggle to make ends meet while serving people of all ages throughout Coles and Cumberland Counties.

Despite the prospect of an uncertain future, the staff of 13 has managed to persevere by budgeting strategically and collecting portions of their paychecks through multiple minor grants, which they also depend on to pay the bills.

“We’re having to pay a bill out of one account and then reimburse it with our other federal and state funds,” Buckley said.

This method has resulted in double bookkeeping that has increased the amount of paperwork she must complete, along with the workload shouldered by the agency’s bookkeeper that now must be paid accordingly.

Most of the federal stimulus grants that SACIS receives are not large enough to pay the salary of even one full-time employee, Buckley said, prompting her to piece together separate grants to pay the staff.

“I’m using my back grant to pay four different people portions of salaries,” Buckley said. “It’s like putting a puzzle together. People worry. It’s stressful because you don’t know if there’s going to be the funds to pay your salary at the end of every month. I certainly worry.”

Fundraising

In the effort to generate funds while the waiting game wears on, the staff will conduct two fundraiser activities next month, including the agency’s annual “Shake it for SACIS” event scheduled from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Feb. 19 in the University Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Attendants will partake in learning a variety of dances that will culminate in a collective dance at the end of the night, and guests are encouraged to make donations to help support SACIS.

The agency will also benefit from the reproduction of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” which will take place Feb. 4 through 6 in the Tarble Arts Center.

Erica Whelan can be reached at 581-7942 or elwhelan@eiu.edu.