Now, only two of the foundation\u2019s five original facilities remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Trump administration slashed AmeriCorps funding by nearly $400 million in April. Most of the funds were reinstated after litigations and lawsuits \u2014 but not for everyone. The future is\u00a0 uncertain, as applications for the 2026 fiscal year haven\u2019t been released yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of the \u2018stop work order\u2019 at the end of April \u2014 and not knowing about accessibility of funds long term \u2014 each program had to make some really tough decisions on if they were able to continue,\u201d said Emily Litchfield, AmeriCorps and volunteerism director at the Arizona Governor\u2019s Office of Youth, Faith and Family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AmeriCorps granted the foundation over $1 million from 2023 to 2025, she said.<\/p>\n
By the time Rooted in Grace applied for renewal, Arizona had already lost 50% of its funding for AmeriCorps, Litchfield said.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit that started out serving a very limited number of families now serves even fewer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phones never stop ringing on the intake line,\u201d Roe said. \u201cAnd once we do fill our beds, it\u2019s just so sad to turn away.\u201d<\/p>\n
In most cases, families spend six to eight months in Rooted in Grace Foundation housing, but the timeline is flexible up to a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t ask for much \u2014 just follow the rules, do your chores, keep your houses clean. You could pretty much just live your life, but just do what you\u2019re supposed to do and there won\u2019t be any problems,\u201d said Shawna, a mother in the program whose full name we can\u2019t disclose.<\/p>\n
At any point, staff can enter the units to check on the families. They keep a log of mothers\u2019 and children’s progress, both psychologically and physically, as some children come in with trauma or disabilities that can halt development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting with the mom and kids in a safe place is the main thing,\u201d Roe said. \u201cWe want them to grow and blossom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
The program offers access to behavioral health services and pharmaceuticals that suppress addictive urges through AHCCCS, Arizona\u2019s Medicaid and Medicare Services.<\/p>\n
Expectations are generally more relaxed in comparison to other rehabilitation centers, meaning there aren\u2019t as many barriers to entry, such as time between last usage or duration of homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are probably one of the couple programs in Arizona that allow any length of recovery (before entry into the program), whether it\u2019s 30 days or two years,\u201d Roe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trauma: A tool and a testament<\/strong><\/p>\n Substance use has been a cornerstone of Shawna\u2019s life.\u00a0<\/p>\n She was 15 when she did meth for the first time. Her mom gave it to her. Shawna\u2019s addiction spiraled for decades, from alcoholism to heroin to \u201cblues,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n And then, four-and-a-half years ago, she quit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her 2-year-old son, Scott, has Down syndrome. For the pair, she said, it felt like Rooted in Grace found them, not the other way around.<\/p>\n \u201cThey saved us by putting a roof over our heads and also taught me how to budget my money,\u201d Shawna said. \u201cThis program has really helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n She has a fingerprint clearance card for the first time and has applied for Arizona\u2019s Department of Developmental Disabilities funds to take care of Scott.\u00a0<\/p>\n Along with her role as housing staff, Jocelyn Roe is a peer support specialist for women like Shawna.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her relationship with mothers in the program is a balanced dance. She\u2019s never been a mother, used drugs or been without a home. Roe leans on their experience, and uses her own, to work with them. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to get my (certification) because of my mental health when I was younger, like being the first kid in my family with OCD and ADHD,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the heart of this role is lived experience, emotional maturity, empathy and flexibility.<\/p>\n Deeana Holyoak is another peer support specialist and Shawna\u2019s neighbor. Prior to funding cuts, she acted as an in-house staff member, where she \u201cgot paid to live\u201d there, and support women as needed, around the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n Holyoak underwent an intense court dispute over the custody of her son that left her with hefty bills to pay and judgement from her family and community. In the end, she was without a job, a home or custody of her son.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019ve been through stuff, it kind of changes our perception of things. But when we haven\u2019t been through it \u2014 it\u2019s really hard for us to relate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n After program care, there\u2019s a middle ground that\u2019s increasingly difficult to navigate as government resources for the most vulnerable continue to be gutted. This moment between recovery and reintroduction into society is widely unresolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n But, the care continues \u2014 to the extent that it can.\u00a0<\/p>\n For many at Rooted in Grace Foundation, the work circles back to the children and how to create a foundation that gives mothers ground to stand on. The care trickles down \u2014 from the program, to the mothers, to the children.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes down to our future, our children,\u201d Holyoak said.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Cronkite News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Abigail Beck | Cronkite News PHOENIX \u2014 Jocelyn Roe was 17 when she started working with mothers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":351097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-351096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115482074489821740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}