Lindsey Gau reflects on time as VPC Executive Director, state of organization
On June 26, Lindsey Gau ended her tenure as Executive Director of the Violence Prevention Center (VPC), a role she had held since 2020. Sara Mochawn will start as the new Executive Director on July 9.
Gau first started working for the VPC in 2017, just as the #MeToo movement was going viral, drawing attention to the prevalence of assault and harassment.
“I feel like it’s just snowballed in a really good way since then,” Gau told WTIP. “Where people are not scared to be or don’t feel forced to be as quiet as they used to be.”
The VPC is a small operation. There are currently three full-time employees: an executive director, a program director, and an office and development coordinator. A part-time employee staffs the on-call support line during weekends and holidays, and a series of volunteer advocates cover the support line after hours to ensure 24-hour accessibility.
“And we really do need to hire a fourth person, but just because of you know, as I think a lot of entities are experiencing uncertainty of funding right now, that’s something we can’t do,” Gau said.
Like many organizations throughout Cook County, Minnesota, and the country, the VPC faces a funding crunch. More than half of the center’s funding comes from grants through the Office of Justice Programs, both at the state and federal levels.
Federal funding comes from the Victims of Crime Act, which has been cut for the past eight years and was cut by 40 percent last year. The VPC anticipates losing that funding by 2027, which would account for 16 percent of the center’s budget. Meanwhile, the state funding was cut by about $20,000 after remaining stagnant for about a decade.
“For some nonprofits, that might seem like a small amount, but for us, that’s a pretty impactful amount,” Gau said.
Cuts to government funding have pushed more organizations to rely on pubic donations, creating competition among organizations for donors. The VPC is unique in that much of its work is confidential, and the people who depend on it are local.
“Because we’re such a local entity, we don’t get a lot of donors or anything,” Gau said. “So again, that limits our donor pool as well. So yeah, we are trying to do more with less and just sustain what we have right now.”
The VPC has been operating in the community as a non-profit for 40 years. In 2025, the center reports providing 650 individual services for around 66 clients, over $3,500 in food and gas cards, and over $2,600 in housing assistance, resulting in nine clients relocating to safety.
“The need for our services has really increased since the pandemic, and has not gone down,” Gau said.
WTIP spoke with Lindsey Gau about the status of the Violence Prevention Center and her time working there. The audio of that conversation can be found below.
Josh Hinke June 30, 2025
