Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan has awarded two DeKalb County agencies a total of $28,000 to aid their violent crime victims’ assistance programs.

DeKalb County State’s Attorney Michael Coghlan said his office’s $15,000 grant will help pay the salary of a victim assistance witness.

The witness will help victims of violent crimes obtain restitution from their attackers by providing them with transportation to the courthouse and keeping them updated on court proceedings, Coghlan said.

Coghlan said this is the first year his office has received a grant, which he said will help establish a permanent victim assistance program.

Pam Weiseman, executive director of Safe Passage, Inc. of DeKalb, said the $13,000 grant her agency received will pay part of the salary of a legal advocate for victims of domestic violence.

Weiseman said the legal advocate is not a lawyer, but will assist victims by informing them of their rights under the Domestic Violence Act and helping them obtain court orders of protection.

In addition to legal assistance, Weiseman said Safe Passage, a private not-for-profit agency, assists victims of domestic violence by providing temporary shelter, counseling, and a 24-hour telephone hotline. Safe Passage also has volunteer programs and will sponsor several informational programs during October, which will be National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Weiseman said Safe Passage assisted an average of 96 victims each month this year. She said most of the victims were women and children from the DeKalb area. Weiseman predicted a 15 percent increase in next year’s cases.

Weiseman said the grants, while providing only a small part of the necessary funding, are “a vitally important part of any domestic violence program.”

The funding for the grants was provided by Hartigan from revenues collected under the Violent Crime Victims Assistance Act of 1984.

Under the act, fines collected from those convicted of felonies, violent crimes, or DUI in Illinois are funneled into a fund administered by the Attorney General.

Hartigan said the grants are intended to provide victims of violent crimes some measure of restitution from their attackers. “Funding for the Assistance Act comes completely from fines the criminals pay and will continue to pay for their despicable acts,” he said.