NORWICH – A new deal to provide services to victims of domestic violence in Chenango County will go into effect today.

The Chenango County Department of Social Services has signed a contract with the Syracuse-based Liberty Resources, a human services agency providing an array of services to individuals, children and families. The $75,000 per year contract offers help to victims of non-residential domestic violence and picks up where a former contract with Catholic Charities of Chenango County left off.

DSS had maintained a $42,000 annual contract for non-residential domestic violence services with Catholic Charities for a number of years. That contract, however, ended Aug. 31 after Catholic Charities – the sole provider of such services in Chenango County – closed the program due to budgetary restraints.

Despite closure of the Catholic Charities domestic crime victims program, DSS is still required by New York State Law to provide non-residential domestic violence services to county residents, meaning department officials had to seek services outside the county.

“Up until this point, Catholic Charities has provided those services,” said DSS Deputy Commissioner Daniel Auwarter. “But given the fact that they closed the program due to fiscal problems, we talked to the County Board and went out with a request for proposal to agencies in other counties around us. Liberty Resources is one of those programs that provides those exact same services, and they were awarded the contract.”