As a new recruit to the Sioux Falls Police Department, a daunting task for current Chief Jon Thum was taking his first sexual assault report.
Thum met the victim at a local hospital in 2006. Before he arrived, the woman had already been speaking with an advocate from the Compass Center, a nonprofit created in 1975 to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The work that the advocate had done to support and prepare the victim eased the way for Thum to speak to her about the assault.
“She felt supported and prepared,” Thum said. “She had someone to walk through the process.”
Today, the Compass Center exists under a new name, Solace. But the free emergency services it provides to crime victims remains unchanged.
“What we’ve found is the services they provide aren’t duplicated anywhere else, and they have a major impact for victims,” Thum said.
Those services, however, are now in jeopardy.
Less than a year after merging with two other nonprofits in a bid to find efficiencies and consolidate costs, Solace finds itself on the losing end of government funding cuts. The group lost three-quarters of its federal funding through the South Dakota Department of Public Safety. What would have been $400,000 was reduced to $100,000.
“There just weren’t enough federal dollars to go around through the state,” said Patty Brooks, Solace’s executive director.
South Dakota lawmakers allocated $5.5 million this year to backfill the federal shortfall, and Solace could see additional funding when the state announces awards from that money in the next few weeks.
But for now, Solace is taking steps to cut expenses. The group has a hiring freeze, and Brooks fears that its crisis waiting list – which currently averages 15 to 30 people, including children – will expand.
Consolidation costs
Solace formed in the fall of 2025. It made sense to combine the Compass Center with Family Services Inc. and Move to Heal, Brooks said, especially in an environment where donors are becoming fatigued with requests for support. The three groups were already in the victim services arena. While the Compass Center focused on emergency services to domestic violence and sexual assault victims, Family Services and Move to Heal focused on longer term counseling and therapeutic support services.
Brooks, a veteran of the nonprofit world who had led the Compass Center from 2010 to 2014, started as Solace’s executive director in April. While it made sense to put the three nonprofits under one roof, she said the group wasn’t prepared to absorb the one-time costs that come with rebranding as a new organization.
Then came the latest funding cut.
Nationally, victim services organizations, including shelters and counseling centers, have traditionally received support from the Victims of Crime Act through fines and penalties paid by federal offenders. But those funds have diminished in recent years, and in 2022 Congress rerouted how the money is distributed.
In 2022, funds through the Victims of Crime Act for South Dakota groups fell from $10.3 million to $3 million last year, according to The Network, a statewide organization for victim service groups. That amount rebounded some to $3.9 million in fiscal year 2026, but additional grants have been cut.
County-level support
The group also receives support from Lincoln and Minnehaha counties, and it is part of the city of Sioux Falls’ Community Partners Program, which awards grants to philanthropic groups that serve community needs. Thum said Solace provides services to victims that governments can’t.
“They have proven time after time to be a nonprofit that has been there for victims,” he said.
Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar said his office routinely refers victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to Solace. The nonprofit also assists people who need protection orders from partners or ex-partners who have threatened violence.
“It’s very important for victims in Minnehaha County,” Haggar said of Solace’s service.
“I suppose this is an example that government can’t do and fix everything,” he added. “Those partners, we have to have them to help victims.”
Brooks said she is focused on expanding the group’s donor base to include more foundations, businesses and individuals.
“If we don’t do something financially now, we will be looking at reducing our level of services,” she said.
That could include reducing the free services it provides to emergency crime victims, people, Brooks said, who shouldn’t have to be in a position to worry about money.
“That keeps me up at night,” she said.
