GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A support network that has provided free services to adoptive families across the state for decades may not survive through 2020.
One of Whitmer's 147 line item vetoes was $250,000 of funding for the Adoptive Family Support Network (AFSN). AFSN, a program within D.A. Blodgett St. John's, utilizes state funding to provide adoptive families with free support groups, respite events, a 24/7 crisis hotline and a wealth of resources.
"We will go from serving over 5,000 families statewide to just a couple hundred here in Kent County," said D.A. Blodgett St. John's communication manager Katy Buck.
AFSN can only continue to serve Kent County through a separate grant that will dry up next summer, as will the entire program. The network's staff, which is made up of adoptive parents, has also been cut in half as a result of losing funding.
"It's heartbreaking. Not even about me losing my job, but all of the families that the program serves to not have those services," said Shelley Garcia, who is being laid off from AFSN. "It's heartbreaking, I don't know how else to say it."
Garcia fears that without AFSN's help, adopted children will end up being removed from their homes.
"My biggest fear is that somebody is going to be in a crisis and not have anybody to reach out," she said. "And [children] are going to end up, depending on the age of the child, in residential placement or the juvenile justice system. Things that we have been able to prevent."
Barbara Lubic, a single mother of three adopted children, has used AFSN as a lifeline for the last decade. All three of her children struggle with behavioral issues and varying disabilities.
"When I'm at my end and I don't think I can make it another day," Lubic said. "The encouragement, the resources they suggest, the different strategies they suggest on how to support my family and my kids, the respite events that give me a much needed break — it's been a priceless gift."
Lubic, who is a professor with an expertise in behavior disorders, said nothing can prepare a parent for the intensity of parenting a child who has experienced trauma.
"Those families, who are in the throws of dealing with some challenges that they didn't expect, who is going to be there to support them?" Lubic said. "There's not going to be anyone to support them and my heart hurts for what that's going to look like for those children."
Between AFSN's team and the thousands of families they've supported, thousands of letters have been written to Whitmer and other state lawmakers to beg for funding.
There's been no agreements on a supplementary budget in the time since Whitmer's vetoes on Sept. 30. The legislature is currently on a holiday recess, so no further discussions are expected until they return.
To get involved in AFSN's call to action, click here.
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