Opinion | How cutting federal grant funding impacts Michigan residents in need

The proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" underscores the importance of empowering individuals by providing them with skills and knowledge for long-term self-sufficiency rather than offering temporary solutions. Whether you’ve heard of or interacted with your local Community Action Agency or not, this is the essential role these 27 agencies across Michigan serve. But right now, that invaluable role they play in our communities is at risk. 

Through Head Start programs, weatherization efforts, housing supports, utility assistance, senior and veteran supports, food assistance, and financial empowerment work, Michigan Community Action Agencies support citizens of all backgrounds and needs. For over 50 years, Michigan Community Action and the 27 agencies that serve all 83 counties have been a positive force for effective, efficient and innovative investments in the people who are the heart and soul of our communities.

We have always stood tall in the space of being the hand up, not the handout. Through relationships with local businesses and our expertise in resource connection and collaboration, we assist aspirational and hard-working families as they navigate the hardships brought on by poverty that hold them back from achieving their American dream. 

One in every eight Michiganders, approximately 1.3 million, or 13.5%, live below the federal poverty line — higher than the national average, which is 12.5%. Though you see friends and neighbors regularly, you may not truly see the depth of how much Community Action Agencies support those needing assistance on their journey to self-sufficiency. Whether a local Community Action Agency is supporting a veteran in Traverse City, a retiree in Sault Ste. Marie or a child in Flint, there are Michigan residents everywhere, regardless of location, who are suffering from homelessness, hunger, lack of heat, no access to health care, and other issues who need the support and guidance provided by Community Action.

Federal funding is not only necessary for Community Action Agencies to survive but also to be flexible, responsive, and deeply effective in serving their communities. The threat of elimination or reduction in those funds would be critically devastating to many in our communities who could be our neighbors and friends — families around us who rely on the assistance of a social safety net that has always been an excellent steward of the funding it receives.

The fear of unpredictability and uncontrollable change has Community Action Agencies on alert and extremely concerned for the families they serve. The possibility of a pause or a permanent break in federal funding has the power to create a stoppage that would severely impact people in every county and across all urban and rural spaces who need the foundation of supplemental Social Security, cash assistance and SNAP benefits. Jobs for parents, services for kids, and assistance for veterans, to name a few, would be lost. The elimination of emergency energy assistance would be calamitous. 

As one example of federal funding on the line, the state received a total of $23 million from the federal government in 2024 in the form of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG). CSBG serves as a backbone grant that allows Community Action Agencies the ability to leverage many other state and federal resources for assisting local communities. Together, these resources allow agencies to assist families in achieving self-sufficiency while also driving private sector job creation. All of this is done in a transparent, efficient, locally controlled manner. To suddenly go without would drastically change the trajectory of thousands of lives forever.

Today, the federal funding dollars allow Community Action Agencies autonomy and discretion to assist people like Doug Birdsall, a veteran who went 10 years without running water to his home in Northern Michigan until neighbors and friends pointed him in the direction of his local Community Action Agency. The life-changing connection he made with the team there led to installation of water in his home and stabilized his home environment.  

This is just one of many stories that illustrate how the work of Community Action Agencies is intimately woven with the biggest of all family and community values: helping others by lending a hand or being a guiding light in someone’s moment of need. 

Now more than ever, we need our federal partners and our local warriors to stay the course. We need communities to raise their voices as champions and our government collaborators to listen and protect. Continued federal investment means continued support for our fellow neighbors, colleagues and friends who need a hand up — something everyone can agree is the ultimate measure of what Community Action is all about.