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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Sophine Charles, Associate Executive Director of Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies
2:30:00
·
4 min
Dr. Sophine Charles, representing the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies, testified about the impact of federal funding cuts on nonprofit agencies providing child welfare services in New York City. She highlighted the critical role of federal funding, the challenges posed by payment delays, and the lack of preparation for impending cuts.
- Emphasized the need for collaborative conversations between nonprofits and government partners to plan for federal cuts
- Discussed the strain on nonprofits' resources as they prepare for potential funding reductions and comply with new regulations
- Highlighted the potential impact on the nonprofit workforce, which is predominantly composed of women and people of color
- Raised concerns about the effects on immigrant families and the potential increased burden on the city to care for migrant children
Dr. Sophine Charles
2:30:00
Great.
2:30:02
Good afternoon.
2:30:03
I'm Doctor.
2:30:03
SCHARLES.
2:30:04
I'm representing the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies.
2:30:08
We serve as the principal representative of all nonprofit agencies that provide foster care, adoption services, family preservation, and juvenile justice services in the state of New York.
2:30:20
We have over 100 members across the state varying in sizes, from small to very large multi services organizations.
2:30:29
In New York City, we have more than 50 of our members who are providing services through the administration of children's services, delivering child welfare services.
2:30:39
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
2:30:42
And I want to begin by just saying that the federal government has historically served as a critical fiscal partner to our New York City nonprofits, both through direct and federal contracts, and by city pass through funding streams.
2:30:56
In many cases, nonprofits were able to promptly access payments, and those payments have been instrumental in helping to keep sustain our program operations on the child welfare side.
2:31:09
The late payments, as you know, is creating a hardship for our agencies, making it very difficult for them to keep their doors open, operate programs, and meet payroll obligations.
2:31:22
We have, according to the Human Services Coalition, ninety percent of nonprofits report delays and approximately in payments, $365,000,000, making it nearly impossible to sustain our programs.
2:31:37
And I want to make sure that you really understand that the silence coming from our government partners is deafening.
2:31:43
Deafening in the sense that there's an absence of collaborative preparation for our nonprofits, and we really need to have those collaborative conversations to help us begin to plan for the federal cuts that are here and those that are coming.
2:32:01
And I the impact of federal budget cuts on nonprofits, The challenges extend beyond the financial difficulties.
2:32:10
It's important to understand that many of our agencies are now spending time creating checklists, tracking their federal cuts, looking at working with their board of directors, trying to figure out what are the best, the worst case scenarios.
2:32:28
So a lot of time and resources spent into looking at that.
2:32:32
We found out recently that the closing of the Administration for Children and Families regional offices have been closed in New York.
2:32:42
So that means that our agencies that have federal contracts no longer get the technical assistance and cannot receive information that will allow them to continue their operations successfully and be in compliant.
2:32:57
And another one is the diversity, equity, and inclusion executive orders.
2:33:02
Many of our agencies are spending time scrubbing websites and trying to make sure their material is absent of anything that will hamper funding coming into their agencies.
2:33:15
And wrapping it up, I'd just like to say that the impact on the workforce remember, our nonprofits are employers.
2:33:24
And so many of the staff, we're looking at something like 75% staff of color, 70% staff of women.
2:33:34
So those cuts are going to decimate our workforce on the nonprofit side.
2:33:40
So we want to make sure that there's collaboration with our city government partners to strategize around how we're going to plan to absorb the cuts that are coming.
2:33:52
And lastly is the our agencies are providing services to immigrant families.
2:34:00
And these families are gone underground.
2:34:03
They're gone into hiding.
2:34:04
And our caseworkers are now scrambling trying to come up with plans for those immigrant families that are facing deportation.
2:34:14
And that means that the city is going to have to absorb funding to take care of those migrant children if their parents are deported.
2:34:23
And so we're submitting written testimony in full with full details.
2:34:29
Thank you for the opportunity to
Lincoln Restler
2:34:30
Exceptionally insightful testimony.