KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers the cities of Shawnee and Mission. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.
The KC Shepherd's Center found itself at a crossroads when it had to choose between getting rid of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) language in one of its federally-funded programs or stopping the program altogether.
According to President Trump’s original executive order, the point of removing DEI programs is to keep the “government committed to serving every person with equal dignity.”
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 2518 for state agencies to eliminate DEI initiatives last month. He took to X, writing state agencies “must operate under a framework that ensures fairness, equal opportunity, and merit-based decision-making.”
The KC Shepherd's Center received a memo from AmeriCorps in February notifying the center it needed to delete mentions of DEI to keep its Senior Companion program open and funded.
"The lesser of two evils in this case was to close the program,” said Janet Baker, executive director. "The impact [of that] on the individuals in the program is gut-wrenching."
Baker said the center chose to close the program altogether because it didn't want to compromise its values to keep it open.
The nonprofit serves around 3,000 seniors in the Kansas City area, many from marginalized communities.
“It's not by design, and we did not go out specifically to recruit anyone from any ethnicity or cultural background, but by virtue of the geography of where we serve in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri," Baker said.
Through the AmeriCorps-funded Senior Companion program, volunteers received a monthly stipend to serve as in-home companions for adults in need. Those volunteers had to be at or below 200% of the federal poverty level to qualify.
"It's a shame that this has to be cut out because ... they need us so much,” said volunteer Sharon Watkins.
Some of Watkins' fondest memories come from her time as a volunteer with the companion program.
She also said she relied on the stipend.
"I'm a diabetic, and diabetes medicine is high. You know, food keeps going up, rent goes up, utilities go up,” Watkins said.
The program was critical to those it helped, too, according to Caroline Merrigan.
Merrigan’s sister, who is a senior with disabilities, was matched with a companion. Now, she said they’re missing a critical form of care.
“She's by herself. She just about can't eat unless there's someone there that can do that for her,” Merrigan said of her sister. “There are times the senior companion has gone to visit her when my sister's turned out to be very sick and has notified me that I needed to call the ambulance and get her to the hospital. Otherwise, she might have sat in her apartment for several days and nobody would have known that she was so ill.”
Merrigan said she’s fighting to get her sister into a nursing home, but she doesn’t have the money or insurance to pay for it.
“If they (the Shepherd’s Center) could not continue the program as it was designed, I feel like, unfortunately, they made the correct decision on that, but it has ramifications that the higher government levels aren't seeing,” Merrigan said.
Baker said she knows some opponents will be quick to point out she chose to end the program.
"I understand, and I accept that responsibility,” she said. “It's the most difficult thing that I think I've ever done, but I know that we've made the right decision for the long-term viability of Shepherd's Center."
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