Investing in a Child and Family Wellbeing Fund Is the Right Course for New York
For the past three and a half years, I have worked with the Fostering Youth Success Alliance to help young people with foster care experience access the resources they need to attend college. This work is essential. It helps young adults who have been separated from their families pursue their academic dreams.
But it has also raised a critical question: What if we invested in families earlier – before separation happens? How could we strengthen communities and provide the right support to families in crisis, so they never reach the point of child welfare involvement?
One key solution is to expand funding for small, community-based organizations that families know and trust – organizations that provide resources before families reach a breaking point. These groups are uniquely positioned to offer culturally responsive and accessible support, complementing the work of larger human service organizations.
In the next few days, as they finalize the State budget for the 12 months starting April 1st, New York’s leaders can take an important step forward.
The State Assembly’s budget proposal includes the “CHILD Program.” It would establish a $50 million Child and Family Wellbeing Fund. It would be available to grassroots organizations that help families stay together by offering vital services like parenting support, economic assistance, and access to health care.
Research has shown that proactive investments like these reduce the unnecessary contact with child protective services (CPS) that is often the first step toward foster care placement.
To make this happen, the State budget must include both the funding for the CHILD Program and legislation (Hevesi A63A / Brisport S6431) that would ensures neighborhoods communities have a voice in how these resources are distributed. This proposal would empower leaders and families to help direct investments based on their neighborhood’s unique needs, strengthening the broader network of support services available.
For the past two years, I have worked with a coalition of child welfare-impacted leaders, policy experts, and advocates to develop this proposed fund. We’ve seen first-hand how life-changing it is when families have access to programs they trust – programs that prevent unnecessary and traumatic involvement with the child welfare system.
Decades of disinvestment –driven by policies like redlining – have left some communities without the support systems they need. The connection is clear: neighborhoods with the highest CPS involvement, such as Brownsville in Brooklyn, Mount Eden in the Bronx, Lovejoy in Buffalo, and Westside in Syracuse, often have the fewest resources available to help families before crises arise. Yet the small, local organizations that these families trust often struggle to access government funding.
The Child and Family Wellbeing Fund will change that. It shifts the focus from what communities lack to what they have: strengths, aspirations, and trusted networks of support. It prioritizes community leadership and decision-making, ensuring that those most affected have a say in how resources are allocated.
Through a State advisory board and local grant-making processes, the Fund would invest in community-led solutions. Neighborhood-based asset mapping would help identify resources and gaps, while participatory decision-making – including input from impacted families and youth – would guide funding priorities.
This approach is different from the usual way State funding is distributed, which often relies on top-down decision making without community input. That system is not working for families.
New York currently spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year investigating families and operating the child welfare system. In 2023 alone, New York City spent more than $350 million on investigations and $700 million on foster care placements. New York should prioritize investments that keep families together.
This year’s State budget presents an opportunity to take bold action. By funding the Child and Family Wellbeing Fund, we can direct resources toward strengthening families and communities, ensuring that children can grow up in stable, supportive environments. Now is the time for our leaders in Albany to make this critical investment.
Deidra Nesbeth is the director of the Fostering Youth Success Alliance (FYSA) housed at Children’s Aid, a multi-service organization for children and families in New York.
Photo by: Upendmovement.org
