It has been a head-spinning week at the national level and here at home. Wisconsin smacked
with the potential loss of more than 28 billion dollars in federal grants and loans following
a Trump administration pause on trillions of U.S. funding. A federal judge temporarily blocked
the freeze and quickly thereafter the administration rescinded most of it. But for grant and loan
recipients, everything from meals on wheels to head start to farm and housing programs,
the chaotic week has left uncertainty and anxiety in its wake. The women's community in Warsaw
reports that federal grant dollars make up about 20 percent of that agency's total budget.
Executive Director Jane Graham Jennings joins us for a firsthand look at what those grants deliver
and thanks very much for being here. Thank you. So at this hour is it still confusing about
what's happening with the federal grants freeze? It is confusing. So our federal funds come through
state organizations. So the state filters those funds and and when the initial freeze came out,
even our state administrators weren't sure of what was happening. So then when it was rescinded,
we still don't know and we haven't heard from our state administrators whether there is an actual
freeze or or not. So basically we're just continuing with business as usual because you
know that's just kind of where we are. But it we're still very unclear about what that means for our
future. Does your agency have access to those funds? We do it on a reimbursement so that's the way
the grants operate. So we have to send in the reports to the state administrators and then
they reimburse. So we do that every month. So we don't have direct access until after we have put
our reports in. Okay. And so you say that is about 20 percent of your total budget. What amount is
that? So we did some calculations and the percentage would be about $26,000 a month for our agency.
What are the services that your agency provides and what would happen to those services without
that money? The most what we feel the most devastating impact one of the grants that we
provide is called Domestic Violence Housing First. And it's a pilot project that gives us the ability
to actually pay rent for survivors of abuse who are able to get out of an unsafe environment
and maintain a safe environment because we can pay their rent for up to a year. So we actually have
someone in that program right now that we have promised a year of her rent that we're not sure
we can now follow through with. We have several other people that we are assisting with rent
for three and six months and we're not sure we can follow through with those promises.
So that's the most difficult part because they are relying on that to be able to maintain a safe home.
So they are back in a situation that they have to choose between homelessness
or returning to a violent home. So that is the the particular funds we're most concerned about.
And then for our staffing it would mean we would have to end our abuse and later life programs.
So we have advocates that work specifically with victims 60 and older and those funds would
mean we wouldn't be able to support those advocates in our sexual assault program.
We have two advocates that are funded by federal dollars that we would have to cut our sexual
assault services in half. And then in our shelter program we would have to reconfigure
how we do that because it would eliminate funding for a number of our weekend and after hours
advocates. So we'd have to figure out how we could maintain our shelter services.
Big big impacts there for you locally. Now the aim of the freeze was to fair it out
wasteful spending. What would you say to people who might think your agency or others
shouldn't get this? That we shouldn't get the funding? Yeah.
I always say if you want to know how to really pay attention to your dollars go talk to a
nonprofit agency. Non-profits you know we're kind of given a business plan that no actual
business would ever think to utilize. We are given the idea that you have to do all of these
things with nothing. And so we know how to squeeze to the last penny to be as efficient
and use every dollar in the most responsible way. So I would say when you're getting federal funds
to a nonprofit organization that's not wasteful spending. People are on the ground helping other
humans in a way that they utilize every cent because we have to report several reports on
every penny that we spend. So we have to turn in all of our reimbursement forms. We have to prove
that we are using the funds as we said we would and we have to back all of that up with documentation.
So it is certainly not wasteful spending. It is being used to help people.
Jane Graham Jennings. Thanks very much and thanks for the work you do. Thank you.
I
thought that last part was really important right for folks to understand that as I can well
imagine because we are the recipient of some you know grants or gifts and yes it has to be
documented really scrupy. How do you say that much scruplessly scruplessly. Thank you. I'm glad
to do that on the air. All right but yes so thank you. I think people don't understand that. I mean I
I it sounds kind of flipping but it truly is fact no business would ever set up a business plan the
way they expect nonprofits to operate. So good. Well thank you so much and I'm sure we'll be checking
back in with you. Okay thank you. Okay good luck. Thanks.