County May Temporarily Fund Family Centers to Avoid Cuts

A trio of centers in Fairfield and Suisun City that provide parenting classes, referral services and other programs stands to lose some of its staffing hours without action by Solano County.

The state will no longer reimburse Solano County for its Family Resource Centers because the county no longer includes them on a list of programs that are priorities for funding, Solano County spokesman Steve Pierce said.

The Solano County Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday to consider providing the funding itself to cover the gap until the end of the fiscal year in June–without action, the Fairfield-Suisun Healthy Start Resource Centers would lose $53,000 and have to lay off two para-professionals, close two of the three sites and eliminate a parent program.

The money is only 13 percent of the agency's $409,000 budget, but it would reduce services almost across the board.

"Is it a big deal? Yes, when you consider most of the organizations do operate on a pretty shoestring budget," said Pierce, a former board member of the Dixon Family Resource Center. "When you take out a little it has an impact."

The proposed action at Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting would provide $161,000 from the county's Health and Social Services budget to fully fund the centers until another source of funding can be found.

"The county is doing a bridge for the remainder of the [fiscal] year as they continue to work … to develop new revenue streams," Pierce said.

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Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting
11 a.m. Tuesday
675 Texas St., Fairfield