When federal cuts hit Kansas and Missouri hard, nonprofits must lead | Opinion

As we recognize Black History Month, celebrating the past and current contributions of Black Americans, we want to take a moment to highlight the lingering inequities that negatively impact our Black communities here in Kansas and Missouri.

Chaos and disarray have become the norm in Washington, D.C., and our communities are feeling the impact. We feel it at our kitchen tables, in our hospitals and clinics and in our streets.

Last year, federal grant cuts ended $14.3 million in mental health services funding. In October, reports showed that Missourians lost about 1.6 million pounds of food aid because of federal cuts. The cuts are far-reaching.

Now and historically, Black people, people of color and rural communities are overrepresented in the programs facing cuts. What some in Washington view as simply data points, budget items and numbers on the board are the livelihoods of our friends and neighbors here in Kansas and Missouri.

When we can’t rely on consistency from our federal government and its priorities shift, nonprofits have remained a stabilizing force, connecting neighbors to resources, convening partners and translating policy into real outcomes for families.

We leaders in the nonprofit sector understand the urgency of meeting the moment and the challenges to our continuing ability to do so when federal dollars are no longer reliable.

Working with residents, local governments, elected officials and community partners every day, we see how these networks of trust and service come together to form a strong community foundation. As the federal government disrupts funding for critical programs, we know that, absent more government and philanthropic funding, nonprofits won’t be able to absorb the shock alone.

With a strong grounding in our own communities, nonprofits have a unique role in bridging the gap between community needs and what happens in Topeka, Jefferson City and the city halls across our region.

As federal instability threatens local health and safety, our legislators in Topeka and Jefferson City have a choice this session. They can allow federal uncertainty to deepen inequities — or they can act decisively to protect the health and economic security of our communities by:

• Expanding Medicaid in Kansas to provide health insurance to more than 150,000 Kansans, eliminating the Medicaid work requirement in Missouri, and supporting policies that ensure health care is affordable, accessible and high-quality for both Missourians and Kansans.
• Undoing actions that strip the power of people in Kansas and Missouri and ensuring that all residents can participate in the democratic process without barriers. When communities advocate for themselves, they make choices that improve health outcomes.
• Supporting policies that create safe, affordable housing and protect against displacement. Quality, affordable housing is a proven determinant of health, and people of color are overburdened by the cost of housing.

These decisions will determine whether health clinics stay open, families can put food on the table and rural hospitals survive. They determine whether decades of progress toward closing racial health and wealth gaps narrow instead of widen.

These decisions will determine whether health clinics stay open, families can put food on the table and rural hospitals survive. They determine whether decades of progress toward closing racial health and wealth gaps narrow instead of widen.

In this moment, leadership means more than speeches and social media posts. It means policy choices that strengthen the nonprofit ecosystem that keeps our region stable when Washington wavers. It means investing in communities that have endured generations of disinvestment. It means listening to the leaders and people with lived experience already doing the work on the ground.

Cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, grant freezes and cancellations, conditioning funding based on political priorities, extensive federal layoffs, deploying anti-diversity policies and shuttering agencies — these all jeopardize the vitality of our communities by tightening the belt on already-struggling households and threatening the work of organizations that recognize the harsh truths of racial economic disparity.

Every day we work to create healthier communities, rooted in racial and economic justice. It is imperative, now more than ever, that we stand together as organizations and concerned members of the public against threats to our work.

Nonprofit organizations — from foundations to social service organizations — have long been the bedrock of our communities, and they will continue to do so, no matter what happens in Washington. As government support wavers, foundations must lean in to provide additional funding and advocacy to shore up and support community nonprofits and residents.

This Black History Month, let’s make a point of doing more than just remembering and honoring past leaders and innovators. Let us heed their voices and take responsibility. Our communities have never been passive observers in history. We organize. We build. We protect our neighbors. As nonprofit leaders, whether in philanthropy or in the nonprofits we work alongside, we must use every tool at our disposal to meet the moment and mitigate the impacts of a changing tide. This is the legacy we must continue.

McClain Bryant Macklin is Chief Policy and Impact Officer for the Kansas City 501(c)(3) nonprofit Health Forward Foundation.