Kent County council hears that Health Net will close and WMPC lost foster-care funding

Members of the Kent County Health Equity Council were told that two local community-based organizations are scaling back operations because of funding losses.

Maureen Kirkwood (Health Net of West Michigan) said Health Net will close at the end of May after losing federal and state funding. She cautioned that the organization’s closure will create gaps in services that cannot easily be replaced, including an emergency fund used to cover small barriers such as car repairs and embedded navigation services that helped families move through fragmented health systems. Kirkwood said Health Net employs about 30 people and asked that any open positions be referred to her for internal recruitment.

Sonia Noorman reported that West Michigan Partnership for Children (WMPC) lost MDHHS funding for its foster-care coordination role and has laid off 17 of 22 employees. WMPC is appealing the funding decision and hopes the situation will be resolved this summer; regardless, Noorman said the agency will not likely return to prior staffing levels even if the appeal succeeds. WMPC is continuing some prevention-focused work with a six-person team, including a housing-cluster project with Imagination Factory that aims to stabilize housing to prevent child removals.

Council Chair Candace Cowling acknowledged the organizations’ work and the difficulty of sustaining services without stable funding. No public comment was recorded on the issue during this meeting. The council’s next full meeting is June 2.