KEENE, N.H. (MyKeeneNow) Southwestern Community Services CEO Beth Daniels appeared on “Good Morning with Dan Mitchell” this week on WKBK Radio to spotlight the organization’s wide-reaching impact across Cheshire and Sullivan counties—and to sound the alarm over potential federal funding cuts that could jeopardize core services for vulnerable populations.

In her interview, Daniels outlined the scope of the service organization’s work, which provided nearly 58,000 units of service to more than 13,000 households in the past year. “There’s hardly a person in this region who hasn’t been touched in some way by what we do,” Daniels said.

SCS administers housing, energy assistance, Head Start, transportation, and food programs. Among the agency’s many efforts:

  • 15 affordable housing properties and 5 apartment buildings serve low-income families and chronically homeless individuals.

  • Six homeless shelters offer emergency housing and case management.

  • Five Head Start centers prepare young children for school.

  • The LIHEAP fuel assistance program helps thousands of working families and seniors heat their homes.

SCS also supports people with developmental disabilities through its New Hope New Horizons program, distributes commodity foods to pantries, provides nutrition support through the WIC program, and runs public bus routes in several communities.

Yet Daniels’s appearance also served as a platform to raise public awareness of looming threats to these services. She voiced concern over the proposed elimination of LIHEAP in the FY26 federal budget, calling the potential cut both “devastating” and short-sighted.

“The last thing we want to do is create more homelessness,” Daniels said. “Most people receiving fuel assistance are seniors on fixed incomes or individuals who are working.”

She warned that if the fuel assistance program disappears, the loss of experienced staff and infrastructure could take years to rebuild—even if funding is restored later.

Daniels also shared updates on SCS’s continued recovery work at Marlborough House, a senior housing complex damaged by flooding earlier this year. The agency hopes to return all displaced residents to their apartments by year’s end.

Beyond its social mission, Daniels reminded listeners that SCS is also an economic contributor. “We paid just over half a million dollars in property taxes last year,” she said, countering misconceptions that nonprofits don’t support local tax bases.

The agency fields around 100 housing-related calls a week, Daniels noted, underscoring the regional urgency of affordable housing. In response, SCS recently joined the Monadnock Housing Collaborative, a new community partnership aimed at long-term housing solutions.

With 25 years at the helm of one of the region’s largest social service providers, Daniels used her airtime to reflect on the broader implications of federal policy shifts.

“I don’t think there’s a person in Cheshire or Sullivan County who doesn’t know someone—an elderly neighbor, a working parent, a child—who has benefited from what we provide,” she said.

Listen to the full interview: