Former FACE of Boone County changes name to reflect new focus after funding cuts
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Family Access Center of Excellence of Boone County has changed its name to better reflect its services after being tasked with cutting $1.6 million. The shortfall in funding has cut out community-based services and has forced some staff to be let go.
The newly named Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition will focus on school-based services, including therapy access programs and supporting juvenile justice efforts, coalition director Sarah Owens said.
“We are shifting our name to represent that we are no longer an ‘access center’ and give recognition to our work being primarily school-based,” Owens wrote in a text message.
Juvenile justice diversion efforts will transition over from the community-based services and those programs will be integrated into schools.
“Partnering with law enforcement in schools to identify students who may have a higher risk for future offenses and how we can prevent those,” Owens said in an interview.
She also said that the bulk of funding went toward paying staff, and when community services were slashed, so was the workforce.
The coalition receives its funding from the Children’s Services Fund, a quarter-cent sales tax approved in 2012, Boone County Community Services Department deputy director Kristin Cummins said. Funding peaked in 2017 at $16 million, but the county requires 17% of the total fund to be kept in reserves for emergencies.
More money was distributed to organizations in the years following, but revenue dwindled, leaving the coalition without the necessary funding to keep up with its community-based efforts. Cuts to the coalition weren’t based on performance.
“Quality of work has been great,” Cummins said. “It comes down to the amount of funding that we have available moving forward, and that the Child Services Board decided that they really need to take a hard look at where funding was going.”
The coalition has a $3.6 million budget for 2026, but that will begin to decline throughout the “transition period,” Owens said.
Cuts to services and staff have already been made, along with losing the brick-and-mortar building.
“Rent is not something we’re able to sustain, so we’re always on the hunt for places that we can meet and gather, but we do not have one collective space,” Owens said.
There will be a large cut for 2027; the coalition will have about $2.3 million. By the beginning of 2028, the coalition will be down to $2 million, a 43% cut.
There are 57 other programs that receive money from the children’s service fund. Those programs are safe from cuts for 2026, but that could change when those programs reapply for funding in the spring and are awarded in the summer.
There are over 40 organizations that receive funding, some with more than one program, including City of Refuge, First Chance for Children and The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.
The coalition is on a different contract timeline than the other organizations, resulting in a difference in when they are affected by funding cuts.
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