The Jefferson City-based Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association (CMFCAA) is searching for ways to financially support new programs dependent on funding from the state.
In his withholdings to balance the state's budget, Gov. Jay Nixon restricted $400,000 in increased funds to adoption services. More than $300,000 of that money was dedicated for the nonprofit organization to establish two adoption service programs called Extreme Recruitment and 30 Days to Family.
Both are designed to speed up the process of foster care children finding a forever home.
Extreme Recruitment focuses on foster care children 12 years or older who are typically hard to place. They have behavioral, mental and physical disabilities. The program connects them with relatives or kinship who could be willing to adopt the children. This prevents them from aging out of the system without permanency.
Children in Extreme Recruitment, a program utilized nationwide, have a 80-90 percent success rate while other children have a 30 percent success rate, said Lorie Ross, executive director of FosterAdopt Connect. Children can be placed in 12-22 weeks.
Thirty Days to Family is an intensive, short-term program that increases relative and kinship placement when children enter the foster care system. Like the program title suggests, the goal is to place children within a month.
Money from the state was targeted for hiring four new staff members at CMFCAA to run the programs: an investigator, an Extreme Recruitment recruiter, a 30 Days to Family recruiter and an Extreme Recruitment supervisor. Funds also were planned for the renovation of a large room in the CMFCAA basement for the new staff's office.
When Gov. Nixon signed the Legislature's budget, CMFCAA started renovations and invested more than $10,000 to kick off renovations, executive director DeAnna Alonso said.
The group expected those funds to be reimbursed by the state. Lighting and electrical work have already begun and a phone system is installed. Office furniture and flooring was also purchased.
Training and genogram software was expected to be paidfor with state funds.
Alonso is reaching out to the community, legislators and other agencies to help see the programs go through despite the setback.
More than 100 volunteers from Freshwater Church will rip out flooring and finish other projects in two weeks.
"We have community members who want to see these programs," she said.
Ultimately, the state's investment in the adoption programs will save it money, Alonso said. Costs of children in foster care who would be affected by these programs ranges between $300-$777 monthly. Alonso estimates CMFCAA would save the state $1 million through the programs if it was able to find homes for children its identified with no adoptive resource.
Mid-Missouri has 1,400 children in foster care.
Alonso said she understands Nixon is "trying to be responsible" with taxpayer money, and she hopes he will eventually release the funds.
"We're in a waiting game now," she said.
For more on CMFCAA, go to ccfosteradopt.com.
Related article: Nonprofit adds programs to improve care for long-term foster children