Vermont prevention providers urge restore, increase to parent-child and abuse-prevention funding

At a House Human Services budget hearing, community prevention providers told lawmakers that proposed cuts would reduce services to thousands of Vermont families and urged restoration or increases to state prevention funding.

Ellen, of the Parent Child Center Network, described the network’s reach and results, saying parent child centers cover all regions of the state and in the past year served more than 22,000 parents and 23,000 children. The network, she said, administers an integrated grant created by 2023’s Act 150 and currently distributes about $7,000,000 to 15 centers through the Department for Children and Families, Child Development Division.

"We served more than 22,000 parents this past year," Ellen said, citing increases in parent knowledge and social connections after center use.

A colleague for the network outlined a formal FY27 request: an increase of $1,880,000 to raise the integrated grant to $8,900,000. The request focused on three priorities: bolstering concrete supports that go directly to families (described in testimony as roughly $12,000 per center), funding statewide benefit assisters to help families retain SNAP, Medicaid and other benefits (presenters described a $1.2 million target), and increasing center capacity and staff support (about $500,000).

Jonathan Williams, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, told the committee his organization serves roughly 11,000 people directly and indirectly impacts about 86,000 children. He said the governor’s proposed budget would cut their state appropriation by about 50%, a reduction he said would result in a substantial decrease in program capacity.

"The proposed funding cut in the governor's budget is a 50% cut across all of our programs," Williams said, adding that such a reduction would translate to fewer people served and reduced prevention reach.

Williams cited published studies and state evaluations when asked about independent verification of outcomes; he described reimbursement-grant timing problems and said delayed federal and state reimbursements have strained cash flow.

Committee members asked presenters to clarify per-center distributions, how many families served are experiencing homelessness, and how funded benefit assisters would differ from existing staff help. Presenters said amounts per center approximate $12,000 from some federal sources now, that centers frequently pool regional and community resources to meet needs, and that assisters would be a funded, trained statewide role rather than an ad hoc duty for existing staff.

The committee heard that prevention programs provide concrete supports such as emergency food, temporary rent assistance, help getting ID and vital records, and transportation repairs that can prevent job loss and housing instability.

The committee did not take formal votes at the hearing; members signaled they will consider the requests as they prepare recommendations and asked witnesses to provide proposed language and supporting materials for budget deliberations.

What happens next: the committee scheduled more testimony the following day and asked witnesses to submit proposed budget language and supporting documents to staff for Friday’s review.