Public Safety Committee
November 14, 2023
RECOMMENDATION
AGENDA REPORT
Staff Recommends That City Council Adopt A Resolution To:
1. Award New Grant Agreements To Non-Profit Organizations To Conduct Summer 2024 Town Nights Violence Prevention Events For The Term Of January 1, 2024, To September 30, 2024, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Million Three Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($1,350,000); And
2. Waive The City Of Oakland’s Competitive Bidding Process For Town Nights Grant Agreements With Family Bridges, Inc. And East Oakland Boxing Association; And
3. Amend Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. To Reallocate Three Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($350,000) Allocated To Community & Youth Outreach For Neighborhood And Community Team Services To Violence Interruption Services; And
4. Amend Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. To Reallocate Two Hundred Eighty Thousand Dollars ($280,000) Allocated To Community & Youth Outreach For Neighborhood And Community Team Services To Partially Fund Full-Time Equivalent Salaries Within The Department Of Violence Prevention.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed resolution will authorize the City Administrator to award new grant agreements to six non-profit organizations to operate Summer 2024 Town Nights events at nine locations across the City of Oakland (City) for a total cost of $1,350,000 for the term of January 1, 2024, to September 30, 2024. The proposed resolution will also allow the City Administrator to reallocate $630,000 that was originally allocated through Resolution 89899 C.M.S. to Community & Youth Outreach (CYO) for neighborhood and community team (NACT) services for the period of October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025, in the following ways:
1. Add $350,
000 to CYO’s grant for violence interruption services to meet the need for citywide shooting and homicide response services.
TO: Jestin D. Johnson,
City Administrator
FROM: G. Kentrell Killens, Interim
Chief of Violence
Prevention
SUBJECT: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants DATE: October 16, 2023
City Administrator Approval Date:
Nov 3, 2023
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 2
Public Safety Committee
November 14, 2023
2. Use $280,000 to partially fund staff positions within the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) that currently receive funding from the Board of State and Community Corrections grant that will likely be transferred from the DVP to the Economic and Workforce Development Department.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Town Nights. Town Nights is a multi-generational approach to violence prevention that involves hosting community events that provide free food, activities, and jobs for residents on Friday evenings during summer months in neighborhoods with high rates of shooting and injury. Town Nights aims to engage families in a prosocial and safe activity during high-crime hours, build community cohesion as a protective factor against future violence, and engage individuals involved in violence in mediation discussions that reduce future violence. It is one component of the broader public health strategy funded by the DVP and implemented by community-based organizations (CBOs), and it is designed to safely engage stakeholders of all ages, including individuals who may be potential victims or perpetrators of violence.
Town Nights involves the following four interrelated program elements:
1) Outreach to community members to attend events
2) Employment opportunities for residents to work at events 3) Recreational activities and food available for free to all attendees 4) Violence interruption dialogues facilitated by violence interrupters and community engagement teams that are intended to reduce future violence through the establishment of peace agreements
In November and December 2021, the DVP funded CBOs to field test Town Nights events at eight sites four evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. More than 1,300 Oakland residents attended the events weekly, and 92 part-time jobs were created. Additionally, 1,100 turkeys were distributed prior to Thanksgiving, and 1,400 families received toys for their children in advance of Christmas. The sites were selected based on their location in or on the border of police beats that experience a disproportionate number of shootings with injury each year and their ability to host hundreds of attendees. During Summer 2022, the DVP added one site and one week to the Town Nights model, funding community-based organizations to host Town Nights events at nine sites for five consecutive Friday nights. Over 12,000 people attended the events across all sites and weeks, and 182 Oakland residents were employed to staff the events.
DVP Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023 Grant Agreements. On December 10, 2021, the DVP released a request for qualifications (RFQ) for violence prevention and intervention services from 2022 to 2024. The DVP received eighty-two (82) responsive applications from over seventy (70) agencies. Based on this RFQ, the DVP awarded contracts to 32 non-profits and public agencies to perform violence prevention and intervention services using funding from Measure Z funds and the General Purpose Fund for a total of $19,350,000 for the period of July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023 (Resolution No. 89273 C.M.S.
). Through this process, the DVP
awarded contracts to Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS), Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), Destiny Arts Center, and TRYBE, Inc. to partially fund Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 3
Public Safety Committee
November 14, 2023
Summer 2023 Town Nights events at seven sites. The DVP later fully funded the events at these seven sites and awarded contracts to East Oakland Boxing Association and Family Bridges to host Summer 2023 events at two additional sites (Resolution No. 89648 C.M.S. ).
The resulting events took place at nine sites for six consecutive Friday nights in June and July 2023. Over 15,000 people attended the events across all sites and weeks, and 247 Oakland residents were employed to staff the events. All events provided free meals to attendees and entertainment that included basketball tournaments, bounce houses, face painting, massages, raffles, live music, and dance performances. No incidents of violence took place at these events.
DVP FY23-25 Grant Agreements. On September 19, 2023, the City Council approved new grant agreements with the non-profit organizations selected through the December 2021 RFQ to deliver violence prevention and intervention services from October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025 (Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S.
). This included grants with organizations for violence interruption services (Table 1) and neighborhood and community team (NACT) services (Table 2). Violence interrupters respond to shooting and homicide scenes to assess risk of retaliatory violence and interrupt potential conflicts between individuals or groups. They also support victims and families with referrals to helpful services like life coaching and emergency relocation. NACTs are groups of individuals who serve as credible messengers and visible ambassadors of the DVP’s network of service providers in the community. NACT members develop and maintain relationships that can be leveraged to mediate group violence, host community events to build social cohesion and beautify neighborhoods, and connect community members to resources following a shooting or homicide.
Table 1. Agencies funded to deliver violence interruption services from October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025.
Agency Estimated #
served
Amount
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency 175 $1,050,000 Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice 105 $525,000 Community & Youth Outreach 126 $700,000
Trybe 105 $525,000
Youth ALIVE! 175 $1,050,000
Total 686 $3,850,000
Table 2. Agencies funded to deliver NACT services from October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025.
Agency Estimated #
served
Amount
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency 350 $630,000 Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice 350 $630,000 Community & Youth Outreach 350 $630,000
Roots Community Health Center 350 $630,000
Trybe 350 $630,000
Total 1,750 $3,150,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 4
Public Safety Committee
November 14, 2023
FY22-25 Golden State Works grant. The DVP currently manages a grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections for $11,869,566 through its Golden State Works (GSW) grant program. The grant includes $11,344,716 for a subcontract with the Center for Employment Opportunities to provide daily employment to individuals in Oakland who are on parole through a partnership with Caltrans. The grant also includes $525,000 for DVP operating expenses, which funds the following full-time equivalent (FTE) portions of full-time staff within the DVP:
• 0.60 FTE of a Program Analyst II
• 0.04 FTE of a Health and Human Services Program Planner • 0.17 FTE of an Accountant II
• 0.03 FTE of an Administrative Services Manager I
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Summer 2024 Town Nights grants. The proposed resolution will award grants to the grantees identified in below in Table 3 for the amounts listed and the grant term of January 1, 2024, to September 30, 2024. Grantees will be tasked with hosting Summer 2024 Town Nights events for six consecutive Friday nights at the sites listed in Table 3. The grantees and host organizations proposed through this resolution are the same as they were for Summer 2023.
Host organizations were selected based on their deep connection to the community surrounding each site, ability to coordinate large events and performance during the Summer 2022 and Summer 2023.
Table 3. Grantees and site assignments for Summer 2024 Town Nights events.
Grantee Subgrantee(s) Site Grant amount
BOSS Adamika Village Verdese Carter Park $150,000
CURYJ None Josie de la Cruz Park or
Fruitvale Transit Center
$150,000
Destiny Arts Center None Carter Gilmore Park $150,000
East Oakland
Boxing Association
None Elmhurst Park $150,000
Family Bridges None Lincoln Square Park or
Clinton Park
$150,000
Trybe (1) Homies Empowerment
(2) Hoover-Foster Resident
Action Council
(3) Khadafy Washington
Project
(4) Oakland Raised Me
(1) San Antonio Park
(2) Acorn Learning
Center
(3) Hoover Elementary
School
(4) Arroyo Viejo Park
$600,000
Total $1,350,000
Community & Youth Outreach (CYO) grants. The DVP has identified the need for additional citywide violence interruption services to ensure that violence interrupters are available to respond to shooting and homicide scenes in Oakland 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The grant awards approved through Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. did not adequately fund agencies to respond to shootings in North and West Oakland on Fridays and certain weekends. CYO has the desire and capacity to hire additional staff to provide this coverage for the duration of the Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 5
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grant period for an additional cost of $350,000. This coverage is critical to ensuring that a violence interrupter deploys to every shooting scene in Oakland to assess risk of retaliation and connect victims and families to helpful services. The DVP and CYO mutually desire to reallocate $350,000 of the $630,000 that was earmarked through Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. to CYO for
NACT services to violence interruption services. The DVP and CYO also mutually agree that the remaining $280,000 will not adequately fund NACT services during the grant period, and CYO lacks the staffing capacity needed to maintain NACT work in addition to the expanded violence interruption responsibilities. Additionally, Adamika Village (fiscally sponsored by Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency) and Roots Community Health Center already deliver NACT services in East Oakland and have the ability to cover neighborhoods in which CYO would have operated. For those reasons, the DVP will not execute a contract with CYO for NACT services as originally planned through
Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S.
Funding for DVP staff. The proposed resolution will reallocate $280,000 of the $630,000 that was earmarked through Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. to CYO for NACT services to fund portions of DVP staff positions that are currently funded through the DVP’s FY22-25 GSW grant.
The DVP is in the process of transferring this grant to EWDD, which will help better manage the grant based on its expertise in workforce development. Current grant funding for the City staff will be transferred from the DVP to EWDD to fund a full-time Program Analyst II who will manage this grant. This will result in the DVP losing funding for the following partial FTEs of existing staff:
• 0.60 FTE of a Program Analyst II
• 0.04 FTE of a Health and Human Services Program Planner • 0.17 FTE of an Accountant II
• 0.03 FTE of an Administrative Services Manager I
These staff perform important administrative roles that allow for the DVP to best serve the community-based organizations it funds. The Program Analyst II, whose position receives the majority of GSW funding, is responsible for the DVP’s adult life coaching and employment grants, communicating regularly with grantees about service implementation and deliverables, hosting monthly meetings with grantees to provide updates and troubleshoot challenges, processing invoices, reviewing grant modifications and quarterly reports, and performing site visits. Continued funding of this position through June 30, 2025, is critical to the implementation and monitoring of adult life coaching and employment services.
Approval of the proposed resolution will help to advance the citywide priority of holistic community safety by investing in community events and violence interrupters as approaches to reducing shootings and homicides rather than enforcement efforts.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of this proposed resolution will authorize the City Administrator to award grant agreements to BOSS, CURYJ, Destiny Arts Center, East Oakland Boxing Association, Family Bridges, and Trybe to operate Summer 2024 Town Nights events. The total cost of these grant agreements is $1,350,000, and funding will be allocated from the Biennial Budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2025 using general purpose funds from Project (1006367 Reimaging Public Safety), Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 6
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Account (54011), General Purpose Fund (1010), Fostering Safe and Healthy Communities Program (SC22), Oakland Unite Org (70211) allocated to the DVP for that time period.
The proposed resolution will also allow the City Administrator to reallocate $280,000 from CYO to DVP staffing (Table 4) to fund 0.60 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) of a Program Analyst II, 0.04 FTE of a Health and Human Services Program Planner, 0.17 FTE of an Accountant II, and 0.03 FTE of an Administrative Services Manager I within the DVP.
Table 4. Original and proposed funding sources for $280,000 allocated through Resolution No. 89899 to CYO for NACT services.
Funding source in Resolution No. 89899
C.M.S.
Funding source proposed through current
resolution
Project (1006367 Reimaging Public Safety),
Account (54011), General Purpose Fund
(1010), Fostering Safe and Healthy
Communities Program (SC22), Oakland
Unite Org (70211)
Project (1006367 Reimaging Public Safety),
Account (511XX), General Purpose Fund
(1010), Fostering Safe and Healthy
Communities Program (SC22), Oakland
Unite Org (70211)
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
No public outreach was deemed necessary for this resolution beyond the standard City Council agenda noticing procedures.
COORDINATION
The City Attorney’s Office, Budget Bureau, and the City Administrator’s Office were consulted during preparing this agenda report and corresponding resolution. The DVP will coordinate closely with host organizations to plan and operate Summer 2024 Town Nights events. The DVP will also coordinate closely with numerous city departments to operate the events, including the Department of Parks, Recreation, Youth Development, the Department of Public Works, the Oakland Public Library, and the Oakland Fire Department.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION, AND FOLLOW-UP
Town Nights is modeled after the highly effective Summer Night Lights program implemented in Los Angeles for 13 years as part of the city’s comprehensive violence prevention strategy. An evaluation of Summer Night Lights found that violent crimes were reduced by 3.6% and violent crime calls for service were reduced by 3.8% between 2010 and 2019 in areas where Summer Night Lights events were hosted compared to similar areas where the events were not hosted.1
To explore the impact of Summer 2022 Town Nights events on community violence, the DVP compared the number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place in police beats
1 Brantingham, J.P., Herz, D., Kraus, M. (2021). Community Engagement & Public Safety: The Impact of the City of Los Angeles GRYD Summer Night Lights Program On Violent Crime.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 7
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November 14, 2023
that hosted Summer 2022 Town Nights events and all adjacent police beats during the following time frames in 2022 and comparison days in 2021:
Event hours: 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Fridays (4 hours)
Entire Friday night: 6:00 p.m. on Friday to 6:00 a.m. on Saturday (12 hours) Entire weekend: 6:00 .p.m. on Friday to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday (48 hours) Entire implementation period: First night to final night (4 weeks)
Tables 5 and 6 present results from these analyses, which suggest that 37% fewer assaults with a firearm and homicides took place during Summer 2022 Town Nights operated compared to the same weeks during Summer 2021 when Town Nights did not operate. For comparison, assaults with a firearm were down 22-26%, and homicides were down 13-19% in Oakland overall during the weeks that Summer 2022 Town Nights operated compared to 2021. These results are not causal but suggest that Town Nights may indeed impact reducing violent crime.
The City of Oakland has contracted with Urban Institute to evaluate Measure Z-funded activities in Fiscal Years 22-23 and 23-24; this evaluation will include a more rigorous assessment of the impact of Town Nights.
Table 5. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during Town Nights event hours, nights, and weekends in 2022 and during comparison days in 2021.
Time period Summer 2022
Town Nights
Comparison days
in 2021
% Change from
2021 to 2022
Event hours
(4 hours)
3 5 - 40%
Entire Friday night
(12 hours)
12 20 - 40%
Entire weekend
(48 hours)
30 52 - 42%
Table 6. Number of assaults with a firearm and homicides that took place during the entire Summer 2022 Town Nights implementation period and comparison dates in 2021 by region of Oakland.
Region of Oakland Summer 2022 Summer 2021 % Change from 2021 to 2022
West Oakland 17 27 - 37%
Central Oakland 23 29 - 21%
East Oakland 42 75 - 44%
All regions 82 131 - 37%
Town Nights is part of a comprehensive evaluation currently being conducted by the Urban Institute of all DVP activities funded by Measure Z. Results from Urban Institute’s evaluation of Summer 2023 Town Nights events will be available in early 2024.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: Funding provided to organizations that host Summer 2024 Town Nights events will allow the organizations to hire residents to work at the events. During the Summer of 2023, host organizations hired 247 residents to staff the events.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: FY23-24 Town Nights Grants
Date: October 16, 2023 Page 8
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Environmental: There are no environmental benefits.
Race & Equity: Summer 2024 Town Nights events will be intentionally held in or on the border of police beats that experience a disproportionate number of shootings with injury and homicides each year, to reduce violence in those neighborhoods. Since Black residents constitute a majority of homicide victims and a plurality of shooting victims each year, any reductions in shootings and homicides that result from Town Nights events would disproportionately benefit Black residents.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council:
1. Award New Grant Agreements To Non-Profit Organizations To Conduct Summer 2024 Town Nights Violence Prevention Events For The Term Of January 1, 2024, To September 30, 2024, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed One Million Three Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($1,350,000); And
2. Waive The City Of Oakland’s Competitive Bidding Process For Town Nights Grant Agreements With Family Bridges, Inc. And East Oakland Boxing Association; And
3. Amend Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. To Reallocate Three Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($350,000) Allocated To Community & Youth Outreach For Neighborhood And Community Team Services To Violence Interruption Services; And
4. Amend Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S. To Reallocate Two Hundred Eighty Thousand Dollars ($280,000) Allocated To Community & Youth Outreach For Neighborhood And Community Team Services To Partially Fund Full-Time Equivalent Salaries Within The Department Of Violence Prevention.
For questions regarding this report, please contact G. Kentrell Killens at [email protected].
Respectfully submitted,
G. Kentrell Killens
G. Kentrell Killens (Nov 3, 2023 10:34 PDT)
G. Kentrell Killens
Interim Chief of Violence Prevention
Department of Violence Prevention