With recent reductions in federal funding making waves nationwide, the effects are being felt right here in San Antonio.

Local nonprofits and government-funded organizations are struggling to keep vital programs and staff afloat in the wake of these cuts, leaving programs that have long supported the city’s most vulnerable residents facing layoffs and service cutbacks.

Recognizing this growing crisis, the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAFdn) is stepping up to support Family Service Association (FSA), San Antonio’s oldest social service agency providing various types of assistance to families in need.

“Our vision at the Area Foundation is to close opportunity gaps for the people in our area who need it the most,” said Gavin Nichols, Senior Program Officer with the SAAFdn’s Community Engagement and Impact team. “That’s what Family Service does … They’re the ones in the community, closing those opportunity gaps.”

With backing from the Area Foundation, FSA is working to provide personalized career counseling, job placement support and mental health resources to those impacted, ensuring that those who have dedicated their careers to serving others aren’t left behind as funding dries up.

The organization has already helped place 12 impacted individuals in recent weeks, noted Richard Davidson, FSA’s Chief Operating Officer. He noted many of those impacted were not fully eligible for help through the City of San Antonio’s Ready to Work program, since they sit in a gray area between employed and unemployed.

“I think pretty much since the Area Foundation started, we’ve had funding relationships with them — through either individual donors or through the foundation itself,” Davidson said. “I really enjoyed working with everyone over there.”

While local philanthropy by itself cannot fully replace the scale of federal dollars being lost, the Area Foundation is working alongside partners like Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County and H. E. Butt Foundation to raise awareness of the vital role nonprofits play in the community, Nichols said.

He noted that this collaboration helps sustain the nonprofits that form the backbone of San Antonio’s social services network — the groups that “hold society together” by providing essential programs for residents across the region.

Among the dozen residents recently helped was a single mother of three who was laid off from a local school district, Davidson said. FSA was able to hire her directly for an opening aiding families applying for the Head Start program, he said, adding that her school district experience has been pivotal.

For Nichols, the effort reflects what the Area Foundation does best: leveraging community partnerships to meet people where they are.

“We’re proud to be working with the Family Service Association in this effort,” he said. “It’s another page in the big, thick book of our history together, and we know it’s making a big difference for the people they serve.”

Family Service Association, which has been serving the San Antonio community since 1903, has been a longtime Area Foundation grantee, receiving more than$6 million in grants since 1975.

As San Antonio’s nonprofit sector faces one of its most challenging moments in years, that kind of partnership and compassion ensures that those who have dedicated their careers to serving others aren’t left behind.

Interested in contributing to the various impact area funds managed by the Area Foundation? Click here to get started.

Lindsey Carnett is a member of the San Antonio Area Foundation’s Marketing and Communications Storytelling Ambassador Network.