Foster care program in Cape County losing tax credits due to coronavirus

Count a local foster-care program among the not-for-profits potentially hurt financially by aftereffects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hope for One More in Cape Girardeau and Jackson is no longer eligible for new Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) tax credits for the current 2021 fiscal year, which began July 1.

“We’re 100% community supported now,” executive director Crissy Mayberry said.

The NAP program — which permitted eligible donors, often businesses, to make charitable contributions in return for tax credits — is now eliminated “due to current and projected budget concerns stemming from the COVID-19 public health emergency,” according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development website.

An option for not-for-profits losing access to credits is the new Nonprofit Relief and Recovery Program, which aims to distribute $22 million to Missouri not-for-profits hit hard by the pandemic.

Applications for “first wave” NRRP grants may be submitted until Aug. 14, and Mayberry said Hope for One More will apply.

The agency, which works with the Missouri Children’s Division to provide support and advocacy for foster children, assists an average of 400 children per month.

The 10-year old not-for-profit is a funded partner of the United Way of Southeast Missouri, one of 30 tax-exempt organizations in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and northern Scott counties receiving funding from United Way.

At the not-for-profit’s children’s home in Jackson, overseen by house parents Paul and Patricia Aydelott, 40 children annually receive what Mayberry calls “emergency” foster care.

Mayberry said there are 12,000 foster children overall in Missouri.

“The number of (foster) children in the United States would fill five Super Bowl stadiums,” according to a post on Hope for One More’s Facebook page.

The organization, headquartered at 118 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau, was founded in 2010 by SoutheastHEALTH physicians Drs. Paul and Dawn Caruso.

It also operates a clothes closet and training area out of its Cape Girardeau venue.

The 501(c)(3) charity lists the following statistics on its social media site:

• Foster-care children in the U.S. make up 60% of child sex trafficking victims.
• 50% are homeless within 18 months of aging out of foster care.
• 50% face a lifelong battle with drug addiction.
• 80% of the incarcerated population were at one time in foster care.
• Children in foster care are the most likely student demographic to drop out of high school.
• Only 3% of foster-care children graduate from college.

Hope for One More, with two full-time staff and one part-timer, operates on a $250,000 yearly budget.

“Kids coming into foster care,” said Mayberry, who has managed the organization since 2013, “(literally) have no (other) place to go.

“Children may choose to opt out of foster care at age 18,” she added, “although they can remain until they’re 21.”

Hope for One More’s primary need, Mayberry said, is always the same.

“We need foster parents and homes for kids,” she said.

For more information, go to www.hopeforonemore.org.