Fairfield County's Kids In Crisis Loses State Funding

The state of Connecticut, due to budget constraints, has decided to cancel its contract with Kids in Crisis, the Cos Cob-based agency reported Tuesday. This means that southwestern Connecticut will no longer have state-supported emergency beds for children in need of temporary shelter when home is not safe. This cancellation of the Kids in Crisis contract has effectively eliminated all state-supported beds south of New Haven. 

This past year, Kids in Crisis responded to more than 900 calls from its 24/7 hotline, 203-661-1911, where more than 80 percent of those calls were identified as emergency calls, Kids in Crisis said. 

With the support of the community, Kids in Crisis has served more than 132,000 Fairfield County children and families. This year alone, Kids in Crisis provided assistance to more than 6,000 children and adults in Darien, Greater Bridgeport, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Ridgefield, Stamford, Weston, Westport, and Wilton. 

This decision made by the state was justified by its sense that the need for those beds no longer exists in this region. However, in the last 12 months, Kids in Crisis provided more than 3,000 bed-nights of emergency shelter for Fairfield County families in need (an increase of 16.5 percent from last year), and responded to about 400 in-person, urgent crisis-counseling meetings (an increase of more than 20 percent from last year). 

Kids in Crisis says it is committed to continuing its work, despite the loss of $750,000 in funding from the state. Kids in Crisis will continue to respond to the needs of each child with support of the agency from individuals, corporations, foundations and organizations, while actively working to secure additional support from private and corporate donors, as well as community partnerships. 

For more information on Kids in Crisis and to donate, visit www.kidsincrisis.org. 

Kids in Crisis is Connecticut’s only free, around-the-clock agency providing emergency shelter, crisis counseling and community educational programs for children of all ages and families dealing with a wide range of crises. 

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