Budget woes spurs merger of Horizons and Elder Services

Two cash-strapped social services agencies - Horizons, A Family Service Alliance and Elder Services Inc. - announced Wednesday that they are joining forces to stabilize offerings in anticipation of federal budget cuts.

The hope is the efficiencies of combining the two staffs will allow the agencies to continue serving the current client base and absorb new clients as the senior population in Linn and Johnson counties grows.

'We anticipate some cuts coming from federal funding, but no one knows what it will be,” said Karl Cassell, chief executive and president of Cedar Rapids-based Horizons. 'What we are trying to do is prepare ourselves so we can continue the current level of service and are prepared to add seniors in the future.”

Added Devon Inman, executive director of Elder Services, which is based in Iowa City: 'As we looked forward to the future, we realized we needed to create a broad base, a broad donor base - a Corridor wide base of support.”

Horizons provides a range of services for youths up to seniors, including Meals on Wheels, transportation, mental health services and financial literacy. Elder Services is focused on Meals on Wheels and volunteer opportunities for seniors.

One example of the partnership is shuttle transportation for those in Linn and Johnson counties to and from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The new partnership also will allow Elder Services to bring staff back to the Iowa City and Johnson County Senior Center to serve meals for non-housebound seniors Monday to Friday starting in July.

That service was scaled back a year ago for financial reasons, Inman said. Under the partnership, meals can be prepared at Horizons and served by Elder Services staff, he said.

Meals programs in particular are at the peril of federal funding. Early this year, President Donald Trump proposed a fiscal 2018 budget with a $15.1 billion reduction - nearly 18 percent - to the Department of Health and Human Services, from $84.1 billion this year to $69 billion. About one third of Meals on Wheels funding comes from this federal agency.

Horizons is facing a 20-percent reduction in funding from United Way, down from $700,000 to $500,000 next year, which puts its other services at risk as well, said Bret Nilles, board president of Horizons.

'Nonprofit organizations struggle to find sufficient funding,” Nilles said. 'The challenge is how to provide services to those people in need. Especially with Meals on Wheels, it's important to more effectively and efficiently provide those services.”

Matthew Pollock, a spokesman for Horizons, called the new arrangement a legal alliance, saying Elder Services will be under the Horizons umbrella, but maintain its own nonprofit status. The 15 Elder Services staffers will join Horizons, and the overall Horizons staff count will be 95, Cassell said.

In a news release, Horizons stated both agencies have 'parallel focus on the senior population and families. The partnership provides three primary advantages, according to the news release:

- Effectiveness, including a more in-depth presence and increased array of service capabilities to meet the needs of families with more enhanced and expanded services,

- Efficiency, including combined resources and increased stewardship of funds entrusted toward its mission.

- Opportunity, including optimized responsiveness to the needs of its respective communities.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com