More Cuts Likely to Program for At-Risk Children

Friday, January 21, 2011

One of the programs managed by Child Development Resources is at risk of having its funding cut nearly in half due to state budget cutbacks.

CHIP of Virginia is slated to lose 46 percent of its state funding next fiscal year due to state cutbacks. Since CHIP of Williamsburg is one of the smaller organizations to receive funding, CDR Executive Director Paul Scott is concerned that the local program could lose all its state funding, which would amount to $152,000, or about half of CHIP of Williamsburg’s budget.

“We are relatively small – though successful – and other [CHIP] programs are huge, some almost the size of CDR,” says Scott, explaining why he expects CHIP of Virginia to pass along such a big cut. Last year, CHIP of Virginia cut the local program’s funding by 11 percent.

Scott has been attending all the pre-budget hearings in the Triangle in an effort to bring the local CHIP program to the attention of decision-makers and to let them know about the likely upcoming funding issue. He explained to James City County supervisors last week that the city of Williamsburg and James City County had asked CDR to take on the program years ago because it was a good fit, and that it will likely need more funding support if things go as expected.

He has also traveled to the General Assembly. “We can’t lobby, but we can advocate,” he says, “so we do what we can to preserve the budget.”

The local CHIP program has been very successful, according to Scott. CHIP of Williamsburg was contracted to serve 110 children each year; last year, it served 138. Of those children, 100 percent were immunized, one of the objectives of the program.

Out of the 138 participants, all of the children got medical insurance and all of them have a medical home, which means the families had a doctor to cover the child’s care instead of relying on a hospital emergency room.

Also, the children had a decrease in the intensity of medical services they needed as well as an overall reduction in medical services, another area which CDR uses to measure the program’s success.

CHIP of Williamsburg’s staff is made up of one nurse and 4 other employees who conduct home visits.

On top of getting young children immunizations, insurance and health care, CHIP also works with pregnant women to get them the care they need, which helps reduce overall medical costs and improves the health of the women and their babies. The local CHIP currently has 3 pregnant women enrolled in its program.

Another aspect of CHIP is the ‘Parents as Teachers’ program, which Scott says gives families parenting education and support. “The fact is, parents are a child’s first and best teachers,” he says.

Of the folks who are served by CHIP of Williamsburg, 95 percent of the families have incomes below the federal poverty level, 53 percent of enrolled parents have less than a high school education, and about 30 percent of families are living in a hotel, living in the homes of another family or in a temporary shelter.

There are currently a few bills that state lawmakers are considering which would return some, or all, of the cut funding to CHIP of Virginia, which would likely mean good news for the local program. Until then, CDR is trying to be proactive by communicating with other agencies that fund CHIP locally.

Should cuts happen, “Our focus will be serving those who are at highest risk,” says Scott. “It’s heartbreaking – that the high risk seem to suffer the most. But we’ll keep plugging along as best we can.”