Legislation and
public policy

2023 First Tier Legislative Priorities

Strengthen the Statewide System of Core Services through Appropriations Request of $20M ongoing and $30M one-time

Policy Goal: Invest $50 million in core victim services funding statewide needed to meet increasing demand and stabilize state support for ensuring these services are available.

HB 244: Utah Victim Services Commission and Victim Services 

Policy Goal: Create the Utah Victim Services Commission to establish a statewide strategy to assess and address victim needs, leverage expertise from community partners and state and local agencies to better coordinate services, and provide a collective voice for victims of crime. 

HB 314: Remedies for Victims of Domestic Violence Amendments

Policy Goal: Improve Utah’s current lease termination protections statute so that domestic violence survivors can more easily access its benefits—including expanding eligibility criteria, decreasing cost barriers, and clarifying time frame requirements.

SB 117: Domestic Violence Amendments  

Policy Goal: Expand the use of lethality assessments among law enforcement agencies statewide, identify domestic violence victims who are at high lethality risk, and directly connect them with shelter services and other support.

HB 43: Domestic Violence Modifications

Policy Goal: Work in conjunction with SB 117 to expand lethality assessments statewide, and create a task force with all relevant statewide stakeholders to assess and create a plan for addressing domestic violence data gaps, access, and coordination issues.

Public Policy Committee

UDVC’s membership-based Public Policy Committee is charged with advocating for the needs of domestic violence survivors and service providers, one of the four essential areas of the coalition’s mission to end domestic violence in Utah through advocacy, education, collaboration, and leadership. The Committee guides UDVC’s advocacy for public policy-making that enhances victim/survivor safety and empowerment, strengthens accountability, promotes prevention efforts, and ensures the prompt availability and accessibility of services for victims of domestic violence across the state of Utah. The Public Policy Committee also supports UDVC and domestic violence service providers’ advocacy for state and federal appropriations to ensure that services that are delivered appropriately, in line with best practices on trauma-informed care, and in a manner that preserves human dignity and overcomes cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers to the receipt of such services.

Public Policy Members

Committee membership is open to all UDVC Members but must be proportionately representative of the primary purpose domestic violence service providers, as licensed by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. Other stakeholders who support UDVC’s mission and purpose may also be approved to join the Committee through a simple majority vote of Committee Members present. Committee votes are restricted to UDVC Members.