Victim outreach and intervention services won’t be hampered after Butler County’s VOICe system received an unexpected infusion of cash just days before voluntary layoffs were scheduled to occur.

Heidi Artman, executive director of the Victim Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe), called the development “a hail Mary pass” that will enable the organization to avoid rolling back its all-hours response services or instituting waiting list for counseling services.

“We remain fully staffed and all services remain intact, and we’re moving along,” Artman said today.

The organization, hamstrung by Pennsylvania’s protracted budget impasse that has frozen about $400,000 of its funding, had announced that five employees had accepted voluntary layoffs that would take effect Oct. 15 and leave their positions vacant through Jan. 15.

On Oct. 13, Artman said, VOICe was approved for an extension of its line of credit to $500,000 from $200,000, and it also received unexpected infusions of county and state funding.

Artman said the credit extension isn’t without its own risk and pain.

“Yeah, it’s a risk. We’re incurring costs,” Artman said. “It’s going to be big interest on that line of credit, the (property) appraisal was expensive. The important thing is that services remain in place for Butler County residents and everyone remains employed.”

Artman said the funds would allow VOICe to operate fully until March, when it would have to explore extending its line of credit a second time.