Representatives of more than 30 non-profit organizations gathered at Corewell Health Lakeland Medical Center on Thursday to talk about how they can best respond to potential federal funding cuts after a surprise announcement of a freeze in January.
Judicial orders have prevented the funding freeze from taking effect, but it did send a chill throughout the non-profit community in Southwest Michigan. The Corewell Health Foundation, the United Way, and the Berrien Community Foundation organized Thursday’s workshop so affected groups could discuss ways of helping lawmakers understand the services they provide.
The Area Agency on Aging’s Christine Vanlandingham told us there’s been a lot of anxiety the last month or so.
“As soon as the federal funding pause executive order came out, our phones lit up with, ‘Is mom’s caregiver going to show up today? Are personal care aides? What about the meals? Is care going to be delivered?’ So first of all, it’s just the fear and uncertainty that has rippled through the community,” Vanlandingham said.
Vanlandingham says it’s important people understand what contingencies are in place.
Meanwhile, Meals on Wheels of Southwest Michigan Director Linda Tinsley told us her organization was already receiving inadequate funding when fears grew about an even bigger blow coming. She says it makes her worry about the people Meals on Wheels serves.
“So we have already cut back to on average serving five meals per week, where most of our clients need at least seven, if not more like 14,” Tinsley said. “But that’s an efficiency that we’ve just had to go to already. So to see further funding cuts, then we’re going to have to look at things like wait lists and and telling people that we can’t feed them at all.”
And Tinsley says that’s not even to mention the people Meals on Wheels serves in other ways, like through companionship.
Emerge Innovation Hub Director Ambie Bell told us the non-profit community, and the businesses it serves, are facing a real threat, and they’ve got to work together.
“We are under attack, that’s the reality,” Bell said. “But the reality is also that we can adjust to what’s happening right now, and if that means building partnerships across the room, then that’s what we have to do. And that also means having the tough conversations with those who directly have a voice and a vote in how it impacts their constituents.”
The non-profits represented at Thursday’s “Advocacy in a Complex Environment” workshop heard from speakers about how to present themselves to their community and their lawmakers. The Berrien Community Foundation’s Lisa Cripps Downey told us it was the second gathering of a two-part series focused on planning and advocacy.
