On Monday, June 18th HCCA received 2012-2013 budget information from the Maine CDC indicating that CDC funding for prevention work in our service area will be dramatically reduced: from $407,000 in 2011-2012 to $120,000 in 2012-2013. This was unexpected, given that the budget passed by the Maine Legislature called for a 1/3 cut in Healthy Maine Partnership funding.

The Maine CDC has implemented the cuts by

1)      Eliminating Coordinated School Health Programming

2)      Designating a lead HMP in each of the 9 Public Health Districts with a Maine CDC Contract

3)      Designating the other 18 HMPs as subcontractors - terminating their contractual relationship with DHHS

The lead District Level HMP receives $281,000 annually, and the subcontracts receive $120,000. HCCA is now a subcontract through an administrative decision-making process

A bright spot: the School-Based Health Center at Maranacook School, and all other School based health centers, which also receive funding through the Fund for a Healthy Maine community school grants budget line, did not receive a cut.

In our towns this translates to a 70% cut in Healthy Maine Partnership: Community School Grant funding. The cuts:

• $70,000 to MSAD 11 - eliminating the Coordinated School Health Program
• $70,000 to RSU 2 - eliminating the Coordinated School Health Program
• $44,179 to HCCA - eliminating local Community Health Improvement Planning and community engagement funds
• $102,879 to HCCA -drastically curtailing efforts to reduce tobacco use and exposure, and improve physical activity and nutrition

This translates to a 55% cut overall to the HMP funds for HCCA staffing and operations

Prior planning efforts did not account for this dramatic reduction. The Board of Directors held a special meeting to consider the implications of the 1/3 cut to our HMP after the Legislative action, and reasonable accommodations were considered that maintained significant primary prevention efforts, but this level of cuts will dramatically deplete the level of work that HCCA can do. Staff capacity will be reduced significantly. The loss of the School Health Coordinators at schools that serve the children of 9 local communities is of great concern.        

We do not think that this "restructuring" meets the intent of the Appropriations Committee language to maintain the 26 Healthy Maine Partnerships which are defined as comprehensive community health coalitions.

HCCA remains strongly committed to its primary prevention work and will, as a small non-profit, continue to look for grants and other resources to fulfill our mission: to convene communities, organizations, and individuals to collaborate on quality of life and public health efforts.

We are saddened by this dramatically reduced capacity to serve the people in Southern Kennebec County, and are currently trying to identify ways to continue our supporting and collaborative efforts, but all are in jeopardy without the staffing to engage with our partners.

Please note, funding remains in place for continuing substance abuse prevention work under the auspices of the Drug Free Communities funded coalition, the Southern Kennebec Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP). OSA funding for specific substance abuse prevention programs and projects remain in place, and in fact, will expand by $15,000 to support prescription misuse and non-medical marijuana use prevention efforts. So we are able to continue to focus on this primary prevention service area.

We invite all of you to find out more about ways to partner in these efforts.