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Big Brothers Big Sisters warns Senate removal of TANF funds will leave thousands of Ohio children waiting
Summary
Stephanie Hightower of Big Brothers Big Sisters told the Senate Finance Committee that the Senate's removal of TANF funding from HB96 would halt mentor expansion statewide; she urged restoration of $1 million per fiscal year that the DeWine administration proposed and that the House partially restored.
Stephanie Hightower, representing Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio and state affiliates, told the Senate Finance Committee the organization's statewide mentoring work depends on a $1 million per fiscal year TANF allocation that the DeWine administration included in its budget.
"Since 2014, Big Brothers Big Sisters has received $1,000,000 per fiscal year in TANF funds to support mentoring across Ohio," Hightower said. She said the funding typically creates more than 500 new mentoring relationships annually and that the program serves more than 6,000 children statewide while roughly 2,000 children remain on waiting lists.
Hightower described the House approach as cutting TANF funding by half and the Senate action as having removed the dollars entirely. "Without these dollars, over a thousand children statewide go without a mentor over the next 2 years," she told senators, and she framed the allocation as an investment backed by research.
Hightower said the central office in Columbus acts as fiscal agent for 17 affiliates across the state and that the TANF dollars are distributed to affiliates to expand mentoring capacity statewide. Senators asked clarifying questions about program scale and how the central agency supports affiliates; Hightower said the funds enable expanding mentoring relationships and connect families to other supports.
She closed by urging the General Assembly to "stand with us and keep it going," and offered to answer questions. The committee took no vote on restoration during the hearing.
