City Council
September 19, 2023
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: G. Kentrell Killens
City Administrator Interim Chief of Violence
Prevention
SUBJECT: DVP Employment Grants DATE: September 12, 2023
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To:
1) Award Grants To Non-Profit Organizations To Provide Employment Services For The Period Of October 1, 2023, To December 31, 2024, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Two Million Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($2,250,000); And
2) Amend An Existing Grant With Center For Employment Opportunities For Employment Services To Extend The End Date From June 30, 2024, To December 31, 2024, And Increase The Grant Amount By One Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($125,000), For A Total Amount Not To Exceed Three Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($325,000).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This resolution authorizes the City Administrator to execute new grant agreements with six non- profit organizations to deliver employment services on behalf of the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, for a total cost of $2,250,000.
This resolution also authorizes the City Administrator to amend an existing grant agreement with the Center for Employment Opportunities to extend the end date by six months through December 31, 2024 and add $125,000 for a total grant amount of $325,000. These new grants and grant amendment will be supported by one-time salary savings from the General-Purpose Fund and Measure Z.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Measure Z. In 2014, Oakland voters passed the Public Safety and Services Violence Prevention Act, also known as Measure Z, which imposed a special parcel tax and a parking surcharge tax to fund services in pursuit of the following three objectives:
1. Reduce homicides, robberies, burglaries, and gun-related violence.
2. Improve police and fire emergency 911 response times and other police services.
3. Invest in violence prevention and intervention strategies that support at-risk youth and Sep 14, 2023
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 2
City Council
September 19, 2023
young adults to interrupt the cycle of violence and recidivism.
Measure Z raised over $26 million in FY 2021-22. Two million dollars was allocated to improve fire response services, $700,000 was allocated to audit and evaluation services, $12 million was allocated to the Oakland Police Department for violence reduction efforts, and $13.7 million was allocated to the DVP for community-based violence prevention and intervention services.
Measure Z emphasizes the coordination of public systems and community-based services in the administration of violence prevention and intervention strategies, and it places a focus on youth and young adults at the highest risk of violence. It also establishes a Public Safety and Services Violence Prevention Oversight Commission (SSOC) that oversees Measure Z spending by the DVP, Oakland Police Department, and Oakland Fire Department and makes recommendations to the Mayor and City Council regarding Measure Z expenditures. Measure Z will sunset in December 2024.
DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan. Every two to three years, the DVP prepares a spending plan that outlines the strategies and services it intends to implement during the next funding cycle. Table 1 presents the strategic investment areas for the DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan. By working to fulfill these goals, DVP also seeks to contribute to citywide reductions in racial disparities related to gun violence, family violence, and commercial sexual exploitation.
Table 1. Strategy Areas Identified in the DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan.
Strategy Area Goal Percentage of
DVP funding
Group and Gun
Violence Response
Intervene in gun violence to save lives and support
healing.
50%
Gender-Based
Violence (GBV)
Response
Help people experiencing intimate partner violence
and commercial sexual exploitation find safety and
access to support.
25%
Community Healing
and Restoration
Lift the wisdom of people closest to violence and
deepen their skills to promote community healing.
25%
The DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan also details a theory of change that is based on the following public health premises:
• Services and programs should focus on specific neighborhoods of Oakland with underlying conditions that generate the highest rates of violence. • Services and programs should focus on specific people who are determined to be at the center of violence (tertiary), at risk for violence (secondary), and exposed/adjacent to violence (primary).
• Services and programs should be delivered at times of day and during days of the week when violence is most likely to occur.
• Services and programs should simultaneously be delivered to the individual, peer, family, and community levels.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 3
City Council
September 19, 2023
In developing the 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan, the DVP conducted community listening sessions and worked closely with public partners to create the framework and recommendations for funding allocations.
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023 Grant Agreements. FY22-23 grant agreements resulted from a competitive request for qualifications (RFQ) process that was developed in alignment with the DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan. Grant agreements were awarded to 35 agencies for a total of $20,100,000. Initial FY22-23 grant agreements were approved by the SSOC on May 23, 2022, and by City Council on June 21, 2022 (Resolution No. 89273 C.M.S. and Resolution No. 89462 C.M.S.) for the period of July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, in the amount of $19,350,000. The DVP later added $750,000 to FY22-23 grant agreements to fully fund Summer 2023 Town Nights events at nine sites for six weeks. City Council approved this on March 21, 2023 (Resolution No. 89648 C.M.S.).
On May 22, 2023, the SSOC approved an extension of all existing grant agreements at their current funding levels for three months – through September 30, 2023. This extension was proposed by the DVP and approved by the SSOC to ensure that: (1) new grant agreements are based on the City of Oakland’s approved FY23-25 budget, and (2) the DVP can provide ample notice to organizations that may receive a reduction or elimination of future funding. The three- month extensions were approved by the Public Safety Committee on June 13, 2023, and by City Council on June 20, 2023 (Resolution No. 89796 C.M.S.). The total cost of these grant extensions was $4,440,500. Resolution No. 89796 C.M.S. also authorized a grant for $200,000 with the Center for Employment Opportunities to deliver employment services to individuals at risk for violence or involved in violence from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. This grant was supported by $175,000 from the Workforce Development Board to fund services from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. This grant was also supported by $25,000 from the DVP to fund services from July 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023.
FY23-25 Grant Agreements. The DVP submitted a resolution and agenda report for review by the Public Safety Committee on September 12, 2023, with the DVP’s funding recommendations for October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025. These recommendations included funding at FY22-23 levels for the service categories identified in Table 2 for a total cost of $28,087,500. These grant recommendations were made based on funding from Measure Z and the General Purpose Fund identified in the City of Oakland’s adopted FY23-25 Biennial Budget (Resolution No. 89803 C.M.S.) (Table 3).
Table 2. Service Categories and Direct Service Positions Funded By Grants Recommended for October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025.
Strategy Service categories funded Direct service positions funded
Amount
Group
Violence
▪ Adult life coaching
▪ Emergency relocation
▪ Family support
▪ Hospital response
▪ Violence interruption
▪ Youth diversion
▪ Youth life coaching
▪ 13 adult life coaches
▪ 6 youth life coaches
▪ 4 youth diversion case
managers
▪ 2 hospital responders
▪ 17 violence interrupters
▪ 1 relocation coordinator
$11,025,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 4
City Council
September 19, 2023
Strategy Service categories funded Direct service positions funded
Amount
▪ 1 family counselor
Gender-
Based
Violence
▪ 24-hour hotlines
▪ Bedside advocacy and
accompaniment
▪ Emergency shelter
▪ Legal advocacy
▪ Life coaching
▪ Safe space alternatives
▪ Therapeutic support
▪ 7 bedside advocates
▪ 7 legal advocates
▪ 11 attorneys
▪ 2 life coaches
▪ 2 therapists
▪ 10 case managers
▪ 8 housing navigators
$7,087,500
Community
Healing
▪ Healing and restorative
activities
▪ Neighborhood and
community teams
▪ Therapeutic support
▪ 5 neighborhood and
community teams
▪ 3 therapists
▪ 8 individuals who provide
non-Western healing
services
$5,250,000
School VIP
Program
▪ Community healing
▪ GBV services
▪ Life coaching
▪ Violence interruption
▪ 7 GBV specialists
▪ 7 life coaches
▪ 4 violence interrupters1
$4,725,000
Total $28,087,500
Table 3. Funding Sources of Grants Recommended for October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025.
Funding source Project Fund Org Program Amount Number of awards
Measure Z – FY23-25
adopted budget
TBD 2252 70211 PS37 $18,330,908 41
Measure Z – Reserve
Fund
TBD 2252 70211 PS37 $2,800,000
Measure Z – Anticipated
carryforward
TBD 2252 70211 PS37 $1,557,842
General Purpose Fund
– FY23-25 adopted
budget
TBD 1010 70211 SC22 $4,816,480 11
General Purpose Fund
– Anticipated salary
savings
TBD 1010 70211 SC22 $582,270
Total $28,087,500 52
1 In May 2023, the DVP submitted a grant to OJJDP for $1,000,000 to fund three additional violence interrupters for the School VIP Program for 2.5 school years starting in January 2024.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 5
City Council
September 19, 2023
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
On September 11, 2023, with support from the Mayor’s Office, City Administrator, and Budget Office, the DVP identified one-time carryforward funds from Measure Z and one-time salary savings from the General-Purpose Fund in the amount of $2,375,000 to continue funding employment services at FY22-23 funding levels through December 31, 2024, when Measure Z sunsets. The DVP recommends that City Council approve grants to the organizations identified in Table 4 using this one-time funding allocation for October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024.
This action would advance the citywide priority of holistic community safety by funding employment services that are intended to reduce group-driven violence, gender-based violence, and associated trauma.
Table 4. Grant Recommendations for Employment Services from October 1, 2023, to December 24, 2024.
Service category
(Strategy)
Agency Estimated #
served
Amount
Adult employment
(Group violence)
Oakland Private Industry Council 63 $375,000
Youth Employment Partnership 34 $375,000
Youth employment
(Group violence)
Lao Family Community Development 40 $250,000
Oakland Kids First 44 $250,000
Safe Passages 25 $62,500
Youth Employment Partnership 75 $500,000
Employment
(Gender-based
violence)
Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency
45 $437,500
Total 326 $2,250,000
Additionally, the DVP recommends that City Council approve an amendment to the City’s existing contract with the Center for Employment Opportunities to deliver employment services from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, in the amount of $200,000. The amendment would extend DVP funding at $25,000 per quarter to cover services from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, for an added cost of $125,000 and a total contract amount of $325,000. The amendment would also extend the end date of the existing grant from June 30, 2024, to December 31, 2024.
The additional $125,000 to this grant represents 25 people served through employment services.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of this resolution will authorize the City Administrator to execute new grant agreements with six non-profit organizations to provide employment services from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, for a total cost of $2,250,000. This resolution will also authorize the City Administrator to add $125,000 to an existing grant with the Center for Employment Opportunities to provide employment services through December 31, 2024. Funding sources for the total cost of $2,375,000 are provided in Table 5.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 6
City Council
September 19, 2023
Table 5. Funding Sources of Employment Grants Recommended for October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024.
Funding source Project Fund Org Program Amount
Measure Z anticipated carryforward
from FY22-23
TBD 2252 70211 PS37 $1,125,000
General Purpose Fund anticipated
carryforward from FY22-23
TBD 1010 70211 SC22 $775,000
General Purpose Fund anticipated
salary savings from FY23-34
TBD 1010 70211 SC22 $475,000
Total $2,375,000
As in previous years, staff recommends that any unexpended balances due to grantees not meeting their deliverables be placed in the Measure Z – Violence Prevention and Public Safety Act of 2014 Fund (2252), Oakland Unite Organization (70211), Measure Z Service Prior Year Reserve Project (1004313), and Measure Z Program (PS37) and/or General Purpose Fund (1010), Oakland Unite Organization (70211), Reimaging Public Safety Project (1006367), and Fostering Safe and Healthy Communities Program (SC22).
Leveraged Funds. The DVP currently maintains two state grants from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for a total of $19,134,347 to support adult employment.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
DVP staff conducted an intensive public input and planning process to develop the approved DVP 2022- 24 Strategic Spending Plan based on the proposed grant amendments. The DVP hosted four virtual community town halls from mid-February to mid-April 2021 to solicit input from Oakland residents impacted by violence, stakeholders, and community-based providers.
These town halls averaged 92 attendees per event. In addition, DVP conducted 11 focus groups and 41 interviews with stakeholders, including family members who have lost loved ones to violence, DVP service providers and their program participants (by service strategy), Asian American community advocates, local and national public health and violence prevention experts, members of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, and representatives from public partner agencies such as the Alameda County Probation Department and Oakland Unified School District. All listening sessions were designed to provide small groups that maximized input from those in attendance. A range of expertise and lived experience was present in each session, with most attendees identifying as Black or Latinx.
On July 24, 2023, the DVP presented its funding recommendations for October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2025, to the SSOC, which included the recommendation to not continue funding for employment services or the mini grants program due to budget constraints. The SSOC expressed a strong desire to not reduce funding for any service category and unanimously approved a recommendation for the DVP to fully fund all service categories at FY22-23 levels from October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024 (9 months).
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 7
City Council
September 19, 2023
COORDINATION
The City Attorney’s Office, Budget Bureau, City Administrator’s Office, and Mayor’s Office were closely consulted during the preparation of this agenda report and corresponding resolution.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION, AND FOLLOW-UP
Evidence-Based Strategies. The violence prevention and intervention strategies detailed in the DVP 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan, funded through FY22-23 grants, and recommended for funding through FY23-25 grants, were selected due to their demonstration of effectiveness in prior evaluations of work in Oakland, evaluations of programs in other cities, and/or academic research. For employment services specifically, an evaluation conducted by Mathematica of employment services funded through Oakland Unite from 2017-2018 found that youth who received employment and education support services from DVP-funded agencies had higher rates of school enrollment relative to a comparison group of similar individuals.2
Performance Monitoring. The DVP performs the following activities to monitor grantee performance during each funding cycle and ensure that services are being rendered with the expected dose, reach, and frequency:
• During contract negotiations, the DVP establishes metrics for pre-identified deliverables that grantees are expected to meet during the grant award period (e.g., number of participants served, number of groups held).
• At least monthly, grantees must enter data on services rendered into the DVP’s data management system. For individual-level services, grantees must enter information for each individual served rather than summary data for all individuals. Apricot 360 then automatically tabulates grantee progress towards each deliverable based on the data entered. DVP program officers and planners review this data on a quarterly basis. If grantees are falling behind in meeting deliverables before the completion of a contract year, program officers work with grantee staff to identify and troubleshoot the cause of the shortfall to improve performance.
• During the third quarter of every funding year (January to March), DVP program officers and planners conduct site visits to grantee agencies to interview grantee staff, observe programming, and review files related to program delivery. DVP program officers and planners then prepare site visit reports detailing their findings and highlight areas for improvement when applicable.
Impact Evaluation. Measure Z requires an evaluation of funded efforts to be conducted by a third-party independent evaluator. In 2022, the City Administrator’s Office oversaw the process of selecting the current evaluation team, which has Urban Institute as the lead agency and Urban Strategies Council as a subcontractor (Resolution No. 89139 C.M.S). Urban Institute and Urban Strategies Council will evaluate services funded through DVP grant agreements with non-profit organizations for FY22-23 and FY23-24. All activities will be included in descriptive analyses
2 Mathematica Policy Research. (2019). Oakland Unite 2017-2018 Strategy Evaluation: Life Coaching and Employment and Education Support for Youth at Risk of Violence. Available:
https://www.mathematica.org/projects/oakland-unite
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 8
City Council
September 19, 2023
completed through a review of administrative data. The process evaluation component will build an understanding of the implementation of activities that are new or that have not been extensively covered by prior evaluation phases. The outcome evaluation will be tiered based on the evaluability of each intervention type and around the four outcome domains of interest to the City: (1) individuals who have been or are at elevated risk of being perpetrators or victims of violence; (2) their families; (3) schools; and (4) neighborhoods in the City of Oakland.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: Programs for Oakland residents affected by violence will improve their economic stability through recidivism reduction, educational achievement, and employment for youth and young adults. Breaking the cycle of violence reduces medical, police, and incarceration costs.
Environmental: Expanding social services and improving opportunities for those most impacted by violence helps make marginalized communities safer, healthier, and stronger. Safer neighborhood conditions contribute to the growth and revitalization of our communities.
Race and Equity: Black residents constitute a majority of homicide victims and a plurality of shooting victims each year. In 2022, Black residents represented 50% of victims who reported domestic violence crimes to the Oakland Police Department. Additionally, Oakland neighborhoods that are most impacted by shootings, homicides, and incidents of gender-based violence are neighborhoods in which a majority of residents are people of color. The employment services recommended through this resolution will disproportionately benefit residents of color in Oakland, particularly Black residents.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution To:
1) Award Grants to Non-Profit Organizations To Provide Employment Services For The Period Of October 1, 2023, To December 31, 2024, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Two Million Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($2,250,000); And
2) Amend An Existing Grant With Center for Employment Opportunities For Employment Services To Extend The End Date From June 30, 2024, To December 31, 2024, And Increase The Grant Amount By One Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($125,000), For A Total Amount Not To Exceed Three Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($325,000).
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Employment Grants
Date: September 12, 2023 Page 9
City Council
September 19, 2023
For questions regarding this report, please contact G. Kentrell Killens , Interim Chief of Violence Prevention, at 510-238-3707.
Respectfully submitted,
G. Kentrell Killens
Interim Chief of Violence Prevention
Department of Violence Prevention
Reviewed by: Mailee Wang
Deputy Chief of Administration
Department of Violence Prevention
Prepared by: Jenny Linchey
Acting Deputy Chief of Grants, Programs, and
Evaluation
Department of Violence Prevention
G.Kentrell Killens (Sep 14, 2023 11:56 PDT)
G.Kentrell Killens