The Fairfield County Community Foundation issued a letter Thursday to Connecticut’s U.S. Congress members urging an end to the government shutdown to protect the state’s safety net of services.
At a time when nonprofits are serving more people in need than ever, the need for government services is vital, said Juanita James, FCCF CEO. Nonprofits often step in when the government cannot, and even before the shutdown, these service providers had been struggling “to do more with less.”
“On shoestring budgets and with limited resources, nonprofits in Fairfield County have been teaching more low-income students, serving more meals to families , providing more healthcare and more critical services to a growing number of our citizens,” James’s letter stated. “But the shutdown threatens this already weakened system and has significantly impacted residents  across the country.”
Recounting a few impacted services, James mentioned the state’s crippled Head Start program, which forced many of the parents of some 6,000 children to take unpaid time off to take care of their children.
Additionally James cited stalled plans to launch the state’s revamped Small Business Development Center to help “drive economic recovery.”
Work to restore regions damaged by Hurricane Sandy and to plan for the next major storm have also been stalled, which James said could cause “costly damage.”
“These are just some of the local impacts of the federal shutdown,” James said. “There are many more impacting thousands of residents.”
