Cuyahoga County’s Healthy Human Service and Aging Committee voted Dec. 3 to advance Resolution R20250342, which would make awards not to exceed $6,955,043.10 to municipalities and providers for the Community Social Services Program, effective Jan. 1, 2026 through March 31, 2028.

Marcos Cortez (Health and Human Services) said the contracts are intended to support senior centers and community organizations providing adult day services, transportation, meals, outreach and digital-literacy programming for adults 60 and over and adults 18–59 with disabilities. HHS issued an RFP, received 36 responses and proposed awards to 32 providers.

Daphne James, division of senior and adult services, said staff prioritized services with direct significance to seniors — food, adult development and transportation — when allocating funds and used two to three years of historical data to assess providers’ unit delivery. James emphasized the award package is slightly larger than the previous contract and described efforts to keep allocations consistent and avoid large cuts to individual providers.

Several council members expressed concern about the potential impact on senior centers that provide daily meals; James said there would be comparisons to historical service levels and that providers are not expected to reduce services below recent levels. The committee moved R20250342 to the full council under second-reading suspension; Conwell moved, Sweeney seconded and the motion passed by voice vote.

The full council will consider the proposed awards in a future session.