Adoption Network Cleveland is asking for public donations after a policy change left them more than $200,000 short on program funding.
The organization received partial funding from Cuyahoga County for 13 years, but their contract ended in late December.
The network applied for a new contract for mentoring services, but that doesn't take effect until June.
Executive director Betsie Norris says that donations are needed to support the programs until county funds come through.
“We’ve already got teenagers in foster care who are paired with mentors, and for a lot of these kids this is kind of one of their only long-term healthy adult relationships. These are kids that have pretty chaotic lives and we didn’t want to take the risk of pulling out and not allowing those to continue.”
The other programs that could be affected are post-adoption family support, youth services and adoption navigation programs.
The organization has started a GoFundMe page that has received over $40,000 dollars since February.
