The Stephens Center is facing the loss of more than $1 million in state funding that will terminate services for approximately 200 families and 400 children across the Upper Cumberland.
Stephens Center Executive Director Dawn Tidwell said the organization received an email notification last week stating all state funding is being cut due to a termination of convenience. Government agencies use the language to cancel contracts based on changing budget wishes.
“We have been providing services in the Upper Cumberland for 38 years,” Tidwell said. “And our main goal is to prevent child abuse and neglect, and as of the end of this month, that may be a service we never get to provide again.”
Tidwell said the board and staff will continue to seek a way to fill the $1 million gap, though she said raising that amount of money in a single week seems unlikely without significant help.
Tidwell said the center operates two in-home visitation programs and a public parenting class designed to help parents navigate life struggles or regain custody of children. Tidwell said the staff provides emotional support, postpartum depression screenings, and developmental checks for children to identify early delays.
“It’s just that one-on-one contact of somebody being there and it’s about you,” Tidwell said. “We provide a listening ear once a week for mom to have somebody to just hold that baby five minutes where she can maybe go potty by herself.”
Tidwell said the families most impacted by the closure include those with low income, those lacking transportation, and parents isolated by their location. Tidwell said the center often assists families with basic needs such as restoring electricity, providing toilet paper, or putting food in cabinets.
“That there’s going to be about 400 kids that suffer, whether they don’t have the emotional support, that their parents are suffering another great loss in their life, that there’s not somebody there to bring information or screen them or just provide that important support in home to see them and to meet them where they’re at,” Tidwell said.
Tidwell said the center has helped parents overcome homelessness and earn high school diplomas or college degrees. Tidwell said the organization is currently reaching out to legislators to appeal the funding loss or seek answers regarding the sudden termination.
“As of right now, July 1st, more than likely, our staff is going to have to find other employment or go on unemployment, and our families are going to have to do without services,” Tidwell said. “And it’s really sad, and it feels very hopeless.”
Tidwell shared a message from a new employee who expressed the difficulty of telling a client that their support system was being removed.
“I’m fixing to go see my client and it’s so wrong to have to tell her I can’t see her anymore,” Tidwell said, reading the employee’s message. “We just started and now one thing that’s not judging her or being critical of her has been torn away, like she is not important enough. And I hate this and all that’s going on in our world.”
Tidwell said the center is asking community members to contact legislators to advocate for the program or contribute to the organization’s Venmo account to help keep staff employed during the transition.
“I would just love for the lawmakers, the governor, anybody to understand that our services are very needed in the Upper Cumberland, and if we could just have an extension or know why our funding was lost, or even for them to put in another service to replace us to where the families don’t lose these services,” Tidwell said.
