Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Scott Means
City Administrator Interim Director, Human
Services
SUBJECT: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant
Renewals
DATE: May 28, 2024
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That City Council Adopt A Resolution Awarding Oakland Fund For Children And Youth Grant Agreements In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Eighteen Million Eight Hundred Thirty-Seven Thousand Three Hundred Eighty-Two Dollars ($18,837,382) To Public And Non-Profit Agencies To Provide Direct Services For Children And Youth For An Additional One-Year Term From June 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024 For Summer Programs And From July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 For Full Year Programs
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed resolution authorizes the City Administrator to renew 147 grant agreements with non-profit and public agencies through the voter-approved Oakland Kids First! Children’s Fund in the amount of $18,837,382 for programming in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-2025. Attachment A provides the list of programs and awards recommended for renewal by the Planning and Oversight Committee (POC).
On May 1, 2024, the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth (OFCY) Planning and Oversight Committee (POC) recommended that these programs be renewed for the third year of the current three-year OFCY funding cycle, Year 1: 2022-2023, Year 2: 2023-2024, and Year 3:
2024-2025.
OFCY provides grant awards within 4 goal areas 1) Support the healthy development of young children, 2) Help children and youth succeed in school 3) Promote youth development and violence prevention and 4) Help youth transition to productive adulthood. Services are designed to support children and youth from birth through 21 years of age, and their families. 79 non-profit and public agencies are funded for the 147 distinct grant programs across 11 funded strategies as detailed in the OFCY 2022-2025 OFCY Strategic Investment Plan.
Jestin Johnson (May 29, 2024 21:05 PDT)
May 29, 2024
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
OFCY is a reliable funding stream that has historically served to fill unmet needs and gaps by supplementing the work of community-based, anchor and public agencies. OFCY’s existing funding approach has emphasized breadth over depth to strengthen the ecosystem of support and resources available to children, youth, and their families. OFCY funding is leveraged by grantees to ensure comprehensive programming is available to focus populations.
OFCY funded core programs are prevention and early intervention oriented. Funded programs are designed to increase the investment to low-income ethnic communities (i.e., African American, Hispanic/Latino/x, Asian/East Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American).
OFCY programs are culturally responsive, age-appropriate and child, youth and family- centered. Services and include parent support groups, family resource centers, and mental health services for families with young children to after school, summer youth employment and transitional programs for older youth.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
The Kids First! Amendment (Article XIII – Amended in 2020) of the City of Oakland Charter requires that three percent (3%) of the General-Purpose Fund be set aside as annual revenues, along with interest accrued and any unspent funds from prior years and appropriated to the Oakland Kids First! Children’s Fund. Ninety percent (90%) of the annual revenue is made available for grants to non- profit and public agencies to address the well-being of Oakland children and youth from birth through age 21. Ten percent (10%) is available for administration and evaluation. The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 13588 C.M.S. on March 3, 2020, which extended OFCY for twelve (12) years, beginning July 1, 2021, and continuing through June 30, 2033.
The City Council approved the 2022-2025 OFCY Strategic Investment Plan in December 2021.
Based on the subsequent release of the OFCY Request for Proposals (RFP) that was released on January 10, 2022, and the recommendation of grant awards by the POC in April 2022, the City Council approved 135 grant awards totaling $17,817,382 for FY 22-23, with an option to approve one year grant renewals for fiscal year 23-24 and 24-25, for the three-year OFCY grant cycle (Resolution No. 89245, C.M.S) on June 7, 2022.
A Supplemental Report was presented to the Council on May 26, 2022, to request grant award funding approval for an additional 14 grantees for $1,225,000, as revised estimates to the City’s General-Purpose Fund increased the overall funding to the Kids First! Children’s Fund. The POC, on June 1, 2022, approved the additional grantees (selected from the Priority List) for a total allocation of $19,142,382 for 149 OFCY programs for FY 2022-2023.
In FY 2023-2024, OFCY allocated $18,837,282 for 147 summer program grants that began on June 1, 2023, and year-round programming that began on July 1, 2023, to complete the year two funding cycle under the 2023-2024 OFCY Strategic Investment Plan. (Resolution No. 89772, C.M.S.)
For FY 24-25, OFCY will maintain the baseline funding in the amount of $18,837,382, for 147 summer and year-round programming. OFCY summer program grants begin on June 1, 2024, and year-round programming begins on July 1, 2024, to complete the year three funding cycle under the FY 2022-2025 OFCY Strategic Investment Plan.
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
OFCY Goals and Strategic Priorities
The following are the eligible services for the City of Oakland Kids First! Funding, Measure D (2009) 1) Support the healthy development of young children, 2) Help children and youth succeed in school 3) Promote youth development and violence prevention and 4) Help youth transition to productive adulthood. Table 1 below reflects the amounts and the number of programs funded for the OFCY funding strategies recommended in this report.
Table 1
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
This project advances the Citywide Priority of Clean, Healthy, Sustainable Neighborhoods.
OFCY achieved the FY 23-24 Equitable Service Delivery success standard benchmark of 65% of total children and youth participants enrolled in OFCY services will reflect the diversity of Oakland’s multi-racial population.
Goal Areas (1 – 4)
Strategy Area Number of
Programs
Funded
OFCY
Funding FY
24-25
Healthy Development of
Young Children.
Social-Emotional Well-Being in Early
Childhood
5 $ 775,000
Healthy Development of
Young Children.
Family Resource Centers and Parent
Engagement
10 $2,261,035
Children’s Success in
School
Comprehensive Afterschool Programs –
Elementary Schools
38 $3,230,000
Children’s Success in
School
Comprehensive Afterschool Programs –
Middle Schools
15 $1,500,000
Children’s Success in
School
Middle School Engagement, Wellness &
Transitions
5 $ 710,000
Children’s Success in
School
High School and Postsecondary Student
Success
11 $1,245,000
Youth Development and
Violence Prevention
Youth Leadership & Development 33 $ 4,645,347
Youth Development and
Violence Prevention
Summer Academic & Enrichment, Summer
Youth Employment
12 $1,161,000
Youth Development and
Violence Prevention
Violence Prevention 3 $ 655,000
Transition to Adulthood Career Access and Employment for Opportunity Youth
9 $1,660,000
Transition to Adulthood Career Access and Employment for Youth In School
6 $ 995,000
TOTAL FY 24-25 Grant Awards 147 $18,837,382
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
Additional Program Changes and Non-Renewals
OFCY partners closely with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)’s Extended Learning Office (ELO) to monitor, evaluate, and support afterschool programs. There are two changes to the agencies managing afterschool programs:
• The transfer of the program grant at Acorn Woodland Elementary from Girls, Inc. of Alameda County to Bay Area Community Resources. The interim school principal with the support of her Network Superintendent and assigned principal made the decision to change the lead agency due to staffing, ADA, school-based management and OUSD frustration with the lack of partnership at this site. OUSD has documented the steps to address the concerns and resulting decision to transition the lead agency.
• The termination of the partnership with Higher Ground at East Oakland Pride Elementary. OUSD is looking to identify a new provider for the FY 24-25 school year.
This transition was due to limited staffing which created safety concerns that reached the level of the OUSD Superintendent’s office. OUSD has documented the steps to address the concerns and resulting decision to transition the lead agency. Staff recommendation is to approve the allocation pending identification and vetting of a new provider.
• Covenant House California has informed OFCY staff that the Dreamcatcher program will be closing at the end of year 7/1/2024 thus they will not proceed with renewal of OFCY funding for the FY 24-25. OFCY will work Dream Youth Clinic and other stakeholders to explore options available for the continuation of the Dreamcatcher program.
Alternative #1 The Kids First! Oakland Children’s Fund (Article XIII. of the Oakland City Charter) tasks the POC with submitting funding recommendations to the Oakland City Council for adoption, which can be approved or rejected only in their entirety.
Pro Approval of funding recommendation would avoid delays and allow for the continuation of services for programs in 2024-2025 for summer programming that begins June 1, that directly serves Oakland’s most vulnerable, impacting up to 1,200 children & youth, and their working parents & caregivers.
Con Rejection of individual grants would be a rejection of the package in its entirety. A revised renewal recommendation resulting from Council rejection would be considered by the POC at the July 2024 meeting and returned to the City Council in July or September 2024 for adoption after the August recess.
Reason for Not
Recommending
The funding recommendations address the priorities in the OFCY FY 2022- 2025 Strategic Investment Plan. Rejecting the funding recommendations would result in a delay in the contracting process and potential loss of programming to Oakland children and youth for the summer months.
Therefore, staff recommends council approves the report and resolution.
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
FISCAL IMPACT
The total project cost of these grant agreements is $18,837,382 for FY 2024-2025. Kids First! Legislation requires that no less than 90% of funds be used for direct services for children and youth through the award process.
The City of Oakland Proposed Budget FY 2024-2025 identifies $23,565,016for the Kids First! Children’s Fund. The amount reflects 71,294 more in funding resulting from general-purpose funds available of which Kid’s First receives 3%. Ninety percent (90%), or $21,208,514(Table 2) is available for grants and 10%, or $2,356,502 is available for evaluation, strategic planning, and other administrative costs in FY 2024-2025.
Table 2
Fund Source Organization Project Program Total Amount
1780 - Oakland Fund for
Children and Youth
(OFCY) - Kids First
Oakland Children’s Fund
FY 2024-2025
78251 -
Youth
Services
Organization
1006734 -
OFCY 2024-
2025
YS04 –
OFCY
Program
$21,208,514
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
The POC provided notice and hosted a public meeting on May 1, 2023, to receive public input prior to approving the recommendations for forwarding to Oakland City Council.
COORDINATION
The Office of the City Attorney, Budget Bureau, and Department of Workplace and Employment Standards (formerly Contracts and Compliance) have reviewed this report and the proposed legislation.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Program Performance & Renewal Process
Program Performance & Renewal Process The grant renewal process included a review of OFCY programs (all executed grants reporting in Cityspan, the client services and contract management database) through the end of Quarter Three (3) March 31, 2024, for Year-Round Programs (July 1 – March 31, 2024) and Summer Programs (June 1 – September 30, 2023).
This assessment helped determine if programs are on track with annual performance targets and guided the recommendations for each program renewal that are being recommended to the POC.
OFCY has embraced the Results Based Accountability (RBA) framework to assess the overall impact of the fund. Three main guiding questions in an RBA are: 1) How much did we do? 2) How well did we do it? 3) Is anyone better off?
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
How much did we do? How many participants did we serve?
As of March 31, 2024, 23,307 (unduplicated) children/youths were served by OFCY funded programs, which exceeds the projected number of children / youths to be served by 12% for the entirety of FY 23-24. In addition, 2,347 parents and caregivers were served (unduplicated) by OFCY funded programs with 2,939,765 program hours of service delivered to date.
Most of the 23,307 children/youth were served through the comprehensive afterschool programs strategy, reaching over 9,160 children in elementary and middle schools, followed by children and youth participating in the Youth Development and Leadership strategy, which reached 5,255 children and youth this year, while 11,628 were served throughout other strategy areas.
Participant Demographics & Geographic Areas Served
Youth (by race/ethnicity)
48% of children and youth (11,182 participants) served by OFCY identify as Latinx, followed by 29% that identified as Black or African American (6,673 participants), and 10% that identified as Asian (2,246 participants).
Youth (by gender)
50% of children and youth (11,472 participants) served by OFCY identify as Male, followed by 49% identified as female (11,162 participants), and 1% identified as non -binary or other (278 of participants).
Youth (by age)
37% of children and youth (8,626 participants) served by OFCY are between the ages of 6 and 10 years, followed by 24% (5,713 participants) between the ages of 11 and 14 years. 21% of participants are between the ages of 15 and 17 years, 10% percent (2,327 participants) are between the ages of 18 and 21, and 7% (1,739 participants) that are between the ages of 0 and 5 years.
Adults & Caregivers (by race/ethnicity)
57% of all adults & caregivers (1,343 participants) served by OFCY Family Resource Centers & Parent Engagement programs identify as Latinx, followed by 21% that identified as Black or African American (495 participants), and 7% that identified as Asian (170 participants).
Adults & Caregivers (by gender)
82% of all adults & caregivers (1,928 participants) served by OFCY identify as Female, followed by 15% identified as Male (360 participants), and 3% identified as non-binary or other (59 of participants).
Adults & Caregivers (by age)
49% of all adults & caregivers (1,142 participants) served by OFCY were between the ages of 31 and 40, followed by 22% between the ages of 22 and 30 (516 participants), and 21% between the ages of 41 and 50 (498 participants).
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
Geographic Areas Served
Nearly three out of every four children and youth served reside in one of five zip codes in East Oakland, West Oakland, and Fruitvale/ San Antonio: 94601 (23%), 94621 (16%) 94603 (13%) 94605 (11%) and 94606 (11%).
How well did we do it?
In addition to quantitative data, OFCY funded programs also provide narrative and qualitative assessments about their programs i.e. What does successful program completion look like? How will you know your program has met its intended goals? And highlights of program successes and challenges, participant success stories and descriptions of collaborative partnerships.
69% of programs reporting have achieved their full year annual goals for participants to be served and/or hours of services provided as of the end of Quarter 3. OFCY grant managers will continue to monitor programs and as needed work with programs to address performance concerns as they arise.
Program Evaluation – Is anyone better off?
OFCY evaluates the initiative, conducting an evaluation of the funded strategies.
Staff has identified The Bridging Group to complete the OFCY Annual Evaluation(s). The Bridging Group will conduct a FY22-23 retrospective evaluation report and a descriptive evaluation report for FY 23-24. The FY 22-23 retrospective evaluation and FY 23-24 descriptive evaluation reports will include a comparison of service goals vs. actual goals met; An overview of the focus population served using an equity lens, highlights of successes and participant stories, identification of challenges and barriers, and a description of lessons learned.
In the FY 23-24 descriptive evaluation report will include 1) a summary of responses to the grantee youth and parent surveys (the grantee parent and youth surveys were refined to include a few program impact questions) and 2) an integration of the results and recommendations of Oakland Youth Commission (OYC) Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) pilot research findings and recommendations.
Currently, some but not all OFCY funded programs provide program level outcome data. Using this as a baseline, the goal over the next 18 months is to engage in discussions with grantees supported by our identified evaluator to explore the development of strategy and /or population level outcomes that are measurable, realistic, and doable to be captured in the Cityspan to inform our Results Based Accountability Framework “Is anyone better off”
With the number of funded agencies, it would require a significant monetary investment (likely over a million dollars annually) to implement an outcome evaluation of individual client / youth changes that can be directly and reliably attributed to just OFCY as young people have multiple supports beyond OFCY funding alone. This also takes into account that any in-depth direct engagement of young people in research would necessitate an Institutional Research Board (IRB) approval to meet the research ethics standard for studying human subjects.
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
Race & Equity
OFCY will continue to build on the previous work that culminated in the OFCY 2021 Community Needs Assessment & Racial Equity Analysis Report and the HSD Stressors Index to affirm our commitment to vulnerable communities and populations, utilize data to understand the current conditions and root causes, work with impacted communities, design equity approaches to remove barriers, and form partnerships with those systems that have direct influence and responsibility in mitigating the impact of barriers and systemic and institutional disparities.
This report anticipates working with the Department of Race and Equity and the community over the next 18 months on further analysis that centers equity outcomes for OFCY goal areas.
Starting with application of an equity framework to guide priorities and strategies in future OFCY grant making approaches will align direction and decision making with City equity policy. Data driven, outcome focused planning with the specific intention to change conditions for children and youth who are most impacted by racial disparities holds the greatest potential for maximizing OFCY’s impact.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: OFCY funding provides local employment opportunities through public and non- profit agencies, which are primarily Oakland-based, all of which employ local staff and have a positive economic impact. OFCY funds provide direct compensation to youth through subsidized internships and work experience. OFCY funds are used to leverage and match additional local, state, federal, and private philanthropic funds, bringing additional resources into Oakland.
Environmental: Programs will support community health and safety by providing physical activities outdoors, and nutritional snacks to improve the health and well-being of children and youth.
Race & Equity: OFCY prioritizes funding for services that reach youth and families with the greatest needs. Programs will work to support children, youth, and families in need with basic health, education, enrichment, and employment services through a variety of means. The overwhelming majority of program participants are Latinx, African American, and Asian, indicating a racial equity focus in the funding and delivery of programming. Programs are intended to provide children, youth and families that otherwise may not have the ability to participate in enriching, academically supportive, and socially engaging programming free of charge.
Jestin D, Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: OFCY Fiscal Year 24-25 Grant Renewals
Date: May 28, 2024 Page 2
Life Enrichment Committee
June 11, 2024
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That City Council Approve A Resolution Awarding Oakland Fund For Children And Youth Grant Agreements In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Eighteen Million Eight Hundred Thirty-Seven Thousand Three Hundred Eighty-Two Dollars ($18,837,382) To Public And Non-Profit Agencies To Provide Direct Services For Children And Youth For An Additional One-Year Term From June 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024 For Summer Programs And From July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 For Full Year Programs
For questions regarding this report, please contact Robin Love, Human Services Manager, Children and Youth Services Division, at (510) 238-3231.
Respectfully submitted,
__________________________
SCOTT MEANS
Interim Director, Human Services
Prepared by:
Robin Love, Manager
Children & Youth Services
Attachments (2):
A: List of FY 2024-2025 OFCY Grant Renewal Awards by Organization & Program B: OFCY 2022-2025 OFCY Strategic Investment Plan