BLOOMINGTON - Social service agencies were winding down services Tuesday or were keeping things going with hope that the state will come up with more money to balance the budget for the fiscal year that begins today.

Until the state has more money, programs are taking huge hits and service providers are scrambling to determine how to keep programs going.

"The 24/7 response (to crises) will be dramatically cut back," said Karen Zangerle, executive director of PATH (Providing Access To Help), whose hot line provides 24-hour crisis information and referral. "We're taking social services back 30 years."

The Occupational Development Center - which provides life skills and job training and placement for people with disabilities - ended services Tuesday. As a "good, final gesture," staff members ordered pizza Tuesday afternoon for program participants in their last day at work, said CEO Matt Jackson.

Zangerle hosted a meeting Tuesday afternoon for agency representatives to identify service gaps and "opportunities for new partnerships to address those gaps in the short term." A follow-up meeting will happen later this month with representatives of social services, police, government, the courts and hospitals.

At the meeting, the following were among the cuts reported:

• The Crisis Nursery for children whose parents are in immediate crisis is reducing its hours.
• Assistance to runaway youth will be reduced.
• Subsidized child care for the working poor is being reduced, meaning many of those parents will need to quit their jobs to stay home with their kids, increasing the unemployment rate.
• Services to help keep older adults in their homes are being slashed, meaning more seniors may have to move into more expensive nursing homes.
• Staff at the GED office will be reduced.
• Counseling for sex abuse victims is being reduced.
• Mental health treatment and counseling for the non-Medicaid population is being reduced.

The Baby Fold is planning to maintain its foster care and residential care programs after the state Department of Children and Family Services director said he would maintain the same funding levels for at least two more months, said Baby Fold CEO Dale Strassheim. But support and counseling for foster families is being cut - a problem because many Baby Fold foster children have special needs.

"Some foster families may say, 'I can't do it without support,'" Strassheim said.

At the Child Care Resource & Referral Network, Executive Director Pam Womack said cuts include the closing of the resource center and lending library, discontinuing scholarships for early childhood providers and a program to accredit day care centers, eliminating mini-grants and canceling education and training for child care providers, and a reduction in the number of non-parent custodians eligible for financial assistance.

How to help

Karen Zangerle of PATH asks anyone who experiences or knows of a social-service need that is no longer being met to call the 211 hot line. PATH volunteers and staff will try to determine where help is available. If no help is available, PATH will document the unmet need.