Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies

The Connecticut Council of Family Service Agencies is a statewide network of seventeen (17) independent, non-profit, family serving agencies that provide over 150,000 families with services each year. Services offered through the Council’s member agencies cover the entire human lifespan making the Council unique in representing the needs of families from a holistic perspective.

The current economic crisis is impacting on all Connecticut families regardless of the resources available to them. Family life is dramatically affected by its financial stability and the factors that support or detract from that stability. A loss in one area creates a ripple effect within the family which can be harmful to family members. When even one family member suffers, the entire family suffers. Cuts in one type of resource create strains and increased demands on other resources. Maintaining a healthy family is dependent upon maintaining a healthy balance of resources.

When an imbalance exists between a family and their core services and supports, a spiral effect occurs with need increasing exponentially in various areas of family life. For example, the loss of a job generates housing issues, health insurance issues and problems with meeting daily basic needs which can lead to additional crises at school for the children and in the mental health of the family members. A change in even one of the basic supports of families can place a previously stable family in need of services.

Connecticut is now preparing to manage its budget crisis though reducing services to the “core services” to be delivered by and through state agencies. These “core services” have yet to be clearly defined. The Council defines core services as the key protections that ensure family well being and success. These key protections are:

• jobs,

   

• food,

   

• clothing,

   

• housing/shelter,

   

• basic education,

   

• health,

   

• child care and

   

• child safety.

   

Families cannot succeed without these protections.

The Council requests that the state of Connecticut preserve these protections for families at the legislative and executive branch levels while dealing with the existing budget crisis. Maximizing the resources to support these true “core services” will immediately have a positive effect on families and prevent spending in other areas from escalating out of control.

Specifically, the Council recommends supporting these key protections for families through:

• maximizing federal funds and community resources in these areas of need ,

   

• providing the unemployed with job development , placement and retention services

   

• creation of a system that integrates state, municipal and non-profit leadership in the budgetary decision making process particularly when it involves cuts at the community level, and

   

• requiring that state agencies work together rather than in isolation so that the true cost of considered budgetary cuts may be fully evaluated.