This story is part of Atlanta Civic Circle’s ongoing reporting from our Community Impact Survey, which is gathering firsthand accounts from people across metro Atlanta on how federal actions are affecting them.
Valerie Colbert, who is raising three of her great grandchildren, says one unique Atlanta nonprofit, Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability (ISDD), has helped her cover food, utility bills, and access the legal resources she needs to keep them out of foster care. “It helps when you get to where you don’t know what to do – and how to do it,” Colbert said.
ISDD supports kinship families like Colbert’s, made up of grandparents or other relatives raising children to keep them out of the foster care system. But that assistance may be in limbo, due to looming federal funding cuts, ISDD’s executive director, Holly York says.
Many of these caregivers are seniors, retired, or disabled, so ISDD offers the psychosocial and financial support they need to serve as the children’s caregivers. That includes case management, support groups, and material support, such as emergency rental assistance.
York expects federal policy changes to cut her agency’s budget, which was $716,000 in 2023, by 25 to 40%. That would mean laying off about one-fourth of the staff, including case workers, and sharply curtail its ability to serve families like Colbert’s.
Roughly 90% of ISDD’s budget comes from government sources, with at least half of that from federal funding, York says.
What’s more, she adds, the revenue that doesn’t come directly from the federal government often comes from other federally funded nonprofits.
The threat of federal cuts comes at an especially difficult time for Atlantans grappling with sharp increases in rent, medical bills, and other expenses. “We’re looking at more housing instability, more food insecurity, more negative health outcomes,” York explains.
What’s more, the looming cuts make it hard to plan, she says. She’s still waiting on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reimburse ISDD for grant money allocated in 2023, so she’s leery of relying on current HUD grants, which may not actually get paid out.
“How much care am I going to have to cut back, if I don’t get that money reimbursed?” York asks.
Cuts to federal programs like HUD housing subsidies, SNAP food assistance, or Medicare would make it harder for kinship families to stay together. “We expect children will be relinquished to foster care, because grandparents will be unable to feed or clothe them or obtain medical care,” ISDD’s previous executive director, Rainie Jueschke, wrote in response to Atlanta Civic Circle’s Community Impact Survey.
ISDD client Ella Grier, who adopted and raised her nephew and niece, recently learned from the Dekalb County Housing Authority that she’ll lose her Section 8 rental subsidy, unless her niece moves out. Her income, combined with that of her 20-year-old niece’s from a part-time job, would be too high to remain eligible, she’s been told.
Grier worries that her niece will not be able to find housing that she can afford, particularly if the cuts to federal housing subsidies go through in the spending bill currently before the Senate.
Searching for solutions
York continues to search for alternatives to federal grants — a situation many nonprofits are confronting right now. “Every not-for-profit is facing this,” she says. “The money isn’t limitless, but everybody’s looking for the same dollar.”
York hopes to diversify ISDD’s funding by recruiting more individual and corporate donors. The hard part is standing out, when so many other nonprofits also need new donors.
“It’s a very compelling story,” she says. “We’re keeping families together by bringing them to kinship care and their grandparents, but they need our support.”
Offering volunteer opportunities is one way that she plans to increase community engagement. “Until you engage, you don’t really understand the problem,” York says.
MORE STORIES FROM OUR COMMUNITY IMPACT SURVEY
DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps funding imperils programs serving Georgia communities
Abrupt federal grant termination slashes critical services for low-income students, at risk youth, and veterans.
Latino Community Fund faces $500K in federal cuts: staff and programs at risk
Funding losses and political scrutiny threaten services and support for immigrant communities across Georgia.
An ESOL teacher’s uncertainty about her immigrant students, public–school education policy
How federal actions ripple through Atlanta classrooms.
