Funding Impacts on Existing Social Workers Providing Services to African American Battered Women

Social workers who work in domestic violence shelters have many different impacts that can affect their ability to provide services to battered women. Research is lacking on how funding impacts the abilities of existing social workers to provide services to African American battered women who are at domestic violence shelters in Columbia, South Carolina. The purpose of this study was to examine how a lack of funding impacts the abilities of existing social workers who work at domestic violence shelters to provide services to African American battered women. Conflict theory was used to gain an understanding of how funding issues impact existing social workers’ ability to do their job. A basic qualitative approach was used with individual interviews with five social workers currently employed at domestic violence shelters. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Five themes emerged: (a) limited programmatic and therapeutic access, (b) inability to update training and tools to access current needs, (c) barriers to retaining experienced social workers, (d) insufficient number of social workers, and (e) limited access to services to meet the needs of battered African American women. The social workers who work in domestic violence shelters and shelter administrators may benefit by using the findings to advocate for additional financial and training support at the local, state, and national levels