Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Holly Joshi
City Administrator Chief of Violence
Prevention
SUBJECT: DVP Grants to Community-Based
Organizations for Grant Year 2025-
2026
DATE: April 14, 2025
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution:
1. Awarding Twenty-One Grants To The Community-Based Organizations Set Forth In Tables 1 And 2 To Provide Community Violence Intervention Services For The Period Of October 1, 2025, To September 30, 2026, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Ten Million Seven Hundred Sixty-Five Thousand Dollars ($10,765,000); And
2. Awarding Five Grants To The Community-Based Organizations Set Forth In Table 3 To Provide School-Based Violence Intervention Services For The Period Of October 1, 2025, To June 30, 2026, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Two Million Fifty Thousand Dollars ($2,050,000); And
3. Authorizing The City Administrator To Negotiate And Enter Into Grant Agreements With Grantees With Authority To Extend The Terms Of The Grant And Modify The Grant Amounts As Set Forth Herein Without Returning To Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed resolution, if adopted, will allow the City Administrator to execute one-year grant agreements with 21 community-based organizations to deliver services related to group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation on behalf of the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) beginning October 1, 2025, for a total cost of $10,765,000. Additionally, the proposed resolution will allow the City Administrator to execute nine-month grant agreements with five community-based organizations to deliver school-based violence intervention services as part of the School Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Program beginning October 1, 2025, for a total cost of $2,050,000. The proposed grant agreements will be funded by Measure NN and will continue violence intervention services Jestin Johnson (May 1, 2025 21:17 PDT)
05/01/2025
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 2
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
identified in the DVP’s 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan that are most critical for individuals at the center of violence in Oakland.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
The DVP is charged with reducing group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation in Oakland. To do this, the DVP invests in immediate crisis response services and near-term interventions that stabilize victims and prevent additional violence, as well as longer-term, intensive support services for individuals caught in cycles of violence.
Specifically, the DVP performs three primary functions:
1. Supervise and deploy a team of direct service staff who perform intensive life coaching and violence interruption work with individuals at the highest risk of imminent gun violence as part of the City’s Ceasefire-Lifeline strategy.
2. Fund and coordinate community-based organizations (CBOs) to deliver intervention and healing services to individuals at the center of group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation.
3. Convene and build capacity among community organizations that form the ecosystem of violence intervention services in Oakland to enhance Oakland’s collective capacity to prevent violence, deliver effective and coordinated services, and create a safer and healthier city.
Measure NN
On November 5, 2024, Oakland voters passed Measure NN, the Oakland Community Violence Reduction and Emergency Response Act, which approved the collection of parking and parcel taxes for nine years to fund activities within the DVP, Oakland Police Department (OPD), and Oakland Fire Department (OFD) that achieve the following goals:
1) Reduce homicides, robberies, carjackings and break-ins, domestic violence, and other gun-related violence.
2) Reduce response time for 911 emergency calls for service and improve the quality of response.
3) Reduce the incidence of human trafficking, including the sexual exploitation of minors.
Measure NN allocates 40% of tax revenues to the DVP following an initial allocation of 3% to administrative expenses and $3,000,000 to the Oakland Fire Department. Measure NN also requires that 75% of funds received by the DVP are allocated to grants with CBOs for violence prevention and intervention services. The City of Oakland’s Finance Department projects that Measure NN funding earmarked for CBO services will total $12,814,000 in Fiscal Year 2025-2026 and $13,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2026-2027.
Measure NN also requires the establishment of the Oakland Public Safety Planning and Oversight Commission (Commission) to inform and oversee the expenditure of Measure NN funds in alignment with the measure’s stated goals. To guide the spending of Measure NN funds, the Commission will develop two four-year community violence reduction plans, with the first taking effect on July 1, 2026, and the second taking effect on July 1, 2030. These plans will Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 3
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outline the problems to be addressed with Measure NN funding, theories of change, and outcome metrics and benchmarks related to each goal. The DVP, OPD, and OFD will be required to develop and present biannually on priority spending plans that outline each department’s allocation of Measure NN funds in alignment with the outcome metrics and benchmarks established in the Commission’s community violence reduction plans.
Lastly, Measure NN states that during Fiscal Year 2025-2026, “all revenue generated by the measure shall be allocated in a manner that continues and extends the 2014 Oakland Public Safety and Services Violence Prevention Act funding allocations.” Also known as Measure Z, the 2014 Oakland Public Safety and Services Violence Prevention Act was the precursor to Measure NN and generated funding for grants to CBOs that were administered by the DVP (and formerly Oakland Unite) from 2014 to 2024.
DVP Awards for Grant Year 2023-2025
The DVP awarded Measure Z funds to CBOs to deliver violence prevention and intervention services from October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2025, based on Request for Qualifications #267700, which the DVP released in December 2021 based on the DVP’s 2022- 2024 Strategic Spending Plan. The DVP received eighty-two (82) responsive applications from over seventy (70) agencies in response to this RFQ. On September 19, 2023, the City Council approved grant agreements with 24 CBOs selected through this RFQ to deliver violence prevention and intervention services from October 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025, with the ability to extend services through September 30, 2025, if Measure NN passed during the November 2024 election (Resolution No. 89899 C.M.S.). Three additional City Council resolutions reallocated funds between several agencies based on extenuating circumstances that resulted in the original agencies being unable to continue delivering the required service (Resolution 90317 C.M.S., Resolution 90415 C.M.S., and Resolution 90506 C.M.S.). Additionally, mandatory City of Oakland budget reductions resulted in the early termination of neighborhood and community teams’ services on March 1, 2025. Tables 1-4 identify the CBOs funded by Measure Z to deliver violence intervention services as of March 1, 2025, as well as their annual funding amounts.
Table 1. Funded Agencies and Annual Funding Amounts for Group Violence Services as of March 1, 2025.
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Adult life coaching Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice
$300,000
Roots Community Health Center $270,000
The Mentoring Center $470,000
Emergency
relocation
The National Institute for Criminal Justice
Reform
$265,000
Housing services Abode Services $150,000
Hospital response Youth ALIVE! $375,000
Violence interruption Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency $600,000 Communities United for Restorative Youth
Justice
$300,000
Trybe $300,000
Youth ALIVE! $600,000
Youth diversion The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform
$200,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 4
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Oakland Unified School District $85,000
Youth life coaching East Bay Asian Youth Center $490,000 Safe Passages $275,000
The Mentoring Center $275,000
Total $4,955,000
Table 2. Funded Agencies and Annual Funding Amounts for Gender-Based Violence Services as of March 1, 2025.
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
24-hour hotlines The Family Violence Law Center $200,000 Bedside advocacy
and accompaniment
The Family Violence Law Center $250,000
Ruby's Place $250,000
Emergency shelter Covenant House California $200,000
Family Violence Law Center $200,000
Ruby’s Place $200,000
Sister-to-Sister 2 $200,000
Legal advocacy The Family Violence Law Center $650,000
Life coaching East Bay Asian Youth Center $250,000
Safe space
alternatives
Oakland LGBTQ Community Center $150,000
Young Women's Freedom Center $200,000
Therapeutic support Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency $300,000 The Family Violence Law Center $300,000
Oakland Unified School District $200,000
Transitional housing Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency $300,000 Total $3,850,000
Table 3. Funded Agencies and Annual Funding Amounts for Community Healing Services as of March 1, 2025.
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Family support Youth ALIVE! $275,000
Healing and
restorative activities
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency $250,000
Urban Peace Movement $350,000
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth $200,000
Therapeutic support Youth ALIVE! $200,000
Total $1,275,000
Table 4. Funded Agencies and Annual Funding Amounts for the School VIP Program as of March 1, 2025.
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Community healing Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth $350,000 GBV services The Family Violence Law Center $800,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 5
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Life coaching Communities United for Restorative Youth
Justice
$200,000
East Bay Asian Youth Center $300,000
Student Program for Academic and Athletic
Transitioning
$200,000
Youth ALIVE! $300,000
Violence interruption Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice
$250,000
Youth ALIVE! $250,000
Total $2,650,000
The City Council also approved Resolution 89900 C.M.S. on September 19, 2023, which authorized grants with six agencies to deliver employment services to individuals impacted by group violence or gender-based violence from October 1, 2023, through December 31, 2024.
Table 5 identifies the CBOs funded to deliver these services and the annual funding amounts.
Table 5. Funded Agencies and Annual Funding Amounts for Employment Services from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024.
Service category Agency Annual funding
amount
Individuals impacted
by group violence
Oakland Private Industry Council $300,000
Youth Employment Partnership $700,000
Lao Family Community Development $200,000
Oakland Kids First $200,000
Center for Employment Opportunities $100,000*
Individuals impacted
by gender-based
violence
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency $350,000
Total $1,850,000
*This reflects the annual allocation from the DVP. The executed grant agreement included additional funding from the Economic and Workforce Development Department.
In total, the DVP awarded $14,580,000 annually for the services outlined in Tables 1-5 during Grant Year 2023-2025. Although these awards were primarily funded by Measure Z revenue from 2023 to 2025, they were also partially funded by general purpose funds from the City of Oakland and Measure Z reserve funds that accumulated when grantees did not spend their entire award amounts during prior grant cycles. Given that the DVP’s annual general purpose fund allocation from the City of Oakland has been reduced from $10.7 million in December 2023 to $2.9 million in July 2025, the DVP can no longer augment CBO grants with general purpose funds. Additionally, the DVP exhausted Measure Z reserve funds to keep Grant Year 2023-2025 contracts whole when the City faced budget reductions during the grant period and required an elimination of general purpose funding for CBO grants. For Grant Year 2025-2026, therefore, the only funding available for CBO grants is the $12,814,000 allocated through Measure NN revenue, which represents a reduction of $1,766,000 from Grant Year 2023-2025 funding levels.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 6
Public Safety Committee
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ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
This resolution authorizes the City Administrator to execute grant agreements with 21 CBOs to deliver services related to group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation on behalf of the DVP from October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026, for a total cost of $10,765,000. The DVP traditionally awards grants to CBOs for a two-year term but is electing to award one-year grants to support collaboration with the Measure NN Commission. The one- year grant cycle will allow vital community violence intervention services to continue while the Measure NN Commission begins developing its first four-year community violence reduction plan and receives a presentation on the DVP’s priority spending plan. The DVP anticipates releasing a new request for proposals (RFP) in Spring 2026, once collaboration with the Measure NN Commission has begun, for services that will begin on October 1, 2026. The proposed one-year grants will also allow the DVP to receive and consider final Measure Z evaluation results produced by the Urban Institute before identifying services to fund through the RFP. As required by Measure NN, the proposed one-year grant agreements continue the delivery of services identified in the DVP’s 2022-2024 Strategic Spending Plan for individuals at the center of group violence in Oakland, and they award funding to agencies selected through RFQ #267700.
This resolution also authorizes the City Administrator to execute grant agreements with five community-based organizations to deliver services for the School VIP Program from October 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, for a total cost of $2,050,000. The School VIP Program places teams of three individuals – one life coach, one gender-based violence specialist, and one violence interrupter – in nine high schools in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as full-time staff to support students impacted by violence. These proposed grants represent funding for 18 of 27 staff positions required to implement the program at nine schools during the 2025-2026 School Year, which is the fourth year of the School VIP Program. The DVP has notified OUSD that funding, oversight, and operation of the program will transfer to OUSD during the 2026-2027 School Year, and therefore, grants for these services will end on June 30, 2026.
Pivots to DVP Grants
Although the DVP will continue to fund agencies and service categories from Grant Year 2023- 2025 during Grant Year 2025-2026, the DVP will require pivots to the scopes of work that reflect the following priorities:
1. Focusing services on individuals who are at the highest risk for group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation in Oakland. The DVP’s recent transition to focusing services on the highest-risk individuals supported the City’s capacity to achieve significant reductions in violence in 2024. To continue the reductions, scopes of work for Grant Year 2025-2026 will deepen and reinforce the City’s commitment to identifying and serving those most at risk of drawing and driving violence in the near term.
2. Realigning services with evidence-based models and promising practices. This includes ensuring that life coaching and case management services involve high- frequency contact with participants and use financial incentives to encourage positive behavior change.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 7
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3. Expanding our capacity to assess participant experience and transformation. The DVP will work with CBOs that deliver individual-level services to present and encourage the completion of an anonymous participant exit survey that assesses changes in participants’ mindsets, behaviors, contexts, and support systems as a result of receiving services. These results will be critical in assessing the impact of services and the mechanisms by which services increase protective factors and reduce risk factors and outcomes such as victimization, perpetration, and incarceration. These surveys will also provide valuable feedback on the quality and relevance of services received.
4. Enhancing the City’s ability to evaluate the impact of Measure-NN-funded services by requiring agencies to present a data and evaluation consent form to all participants receiving individual services. This form allows participants to indicate whether they consent to having their personally-identifiable information shared with an external evaluator for evaluation purposes. Participants may agree or decline to have their information shared, but the consent form will need to be completed within 30 days of enrollment in services (this will not apply to brief crisis services). As of March 2025, 57% of individuals entered in the DVP’s data management since October 1, 2023, do not have a completed consent form. The City’s current Measure Z evaluation partner, Urban Institute, identified under-completion of participant consent forms as one of the biggest challenges for current and future impact evaluations.
Additionally, the DVP will implement the following fiscal practices to increase transparency and accountability and ensure Measure NN funds are used for the intended purpose and managed using sound fiscal practices:
1. Annual organizational audit: During the contract execution phase, the DVP will require each agency to produce a completed organizational audit for 2023 or, if available, 2024.
This will allow the DVP to assess the fiscal health of the agency and ensure the agency has a history of strong fiscal practices.
2. Audit of DVP invoice: The DVP will request back-up documentation from all agencies for one quarterly invoice. This will allow DVP staff to review payroll records, participant incentive forms, receipts for purchases, and other backup documentation to ensure expenses are being incurred and reported appropriately.
3. Standardizing fiscal sponsorship fees. The DVP will allow agencies acting as a fiscal sponsor for another agency to charge a fiscal sponsorship fee of 10%, which is a standard rate for agencies that provide comprehensive sponsorship services, including administrative support, compliance, grant management, and payroll services. By standardizing this percentage, except in limited situations where extensive support is required, the DVP will ensure that Measure NN funds are primarily allocated to direct services while allowing small organizations to receive city funds through fiscal sponsorship.
4. Increasing and clarifying the indirect cost rate. The DVP will allow agencies to charge an indirect cost rate of up to 20%. This rate will cover salaries and benefits of administrative staff who do not directly implement or oversee funded services but perform important roles related to financial management, human resources, data and evaluation, and grant reporting. The 20% indirect cost rate will also cover costs related Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 8
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to office rent, utilities, maintenance and janitorial services, audit and legal services, insurance, general office supplies, and other costs that are related to the general functioning of the organization but are not specific to a program or service. Previously, the DVP allowed a maximum indirect cost rate of 15% but allowed grantees to include budget line-items for the aforementioned costs. This requirement to include only direct program expenses in grant budgets mirrors standard state and federal grant practices.
DVP Grant Awards
Tables 6 and 7 present the DVP’s recommended grant awards for October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026, for group violence services and gender-based violence services. Table 8 presents the DVP’s recommended grant awards for October 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, for the School VIP Program. Attachment A provides detailed descriptions of each service category and the requirements of service delivery. Services are divided into core services, which result in the identification and engagement of individuals at the center of violence, and support services, which are primarily available to individuals engaged through the core services.
Healing services are reflected as support services for group violence and gender-based violence rather than being their own strategy, as they were during Grant Year 2023-2025.
As previously referenced, the DVP’s grant awards for this time period reflect a reduction of $1,766,000 from annual funding allocations during Grant Year 2023-2025. In making decisions to reduce or reallocate funding between service categories and agencies, the DVP prioritized the following factors:
1. Focus on individuals at highest risk for group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation. The DVP prioritized funding for services that work directly with individuals at the center of these forms of violence.
2. Realignment with evidence-based and promising practices. The DVP increased funding allocations for intensive life coaching and case management models that require additional funding to implement client financial incentives aligned with best practices.
3. Agency performance during Grant Year 2023-2025. The DVP prioritized funding for agencies that demonstrated a strong ability to serve the intended target population and deliver the expected services during Grant Year 2023-2025.
4. Identified redundancies in funding or service delivery. In several situations, the DVP reduced or eliminated funding for services that are funded or facilitated by other public system partners or external grants.
Table 6. Agencies Recommended for Funding Related to Group Violence Services.
Service category Agency Projected
people served
annually
Annual funding
amount
Core Services
Hospital response Youth Alive 60 $270,000
Life coaching for
adults
Communities United for Restorative
Youth Justice
20 $350,000
Roots Community Health Center 20 $350,000
The Mentoring Center 40 $650,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 9
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Service category Agency Projected
people served
annually
Annual funding
amount
Life coaching for
youth
East Bay Asian Youth Center 40 $660,000
Safe Passages 20 $330,000
The Mentoring Center 20 $330,000
Violence
interruption
Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency
N/A $550,000
Communities United for Restorative
Youth Justice
N/A $275,000
Trybe Inc. N/A $275,000
Youth Alive N/A $550,000
Youth diversion The National Institute for Criminal
Justice Reform
10 $170,000
Support
Services
Emergency
relocation
The National Institute for Criminal
Justice Reform
35 $265,000
Employment for
adults
Oakland Private Industry Council 100 $300,000
Employment for
youth
Lao Family Community
Development
60 $200,000
Youth Employment Partnership 30 $200,000
Family and victim
support
Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency
30 $80,000
Urban Peace Movement 50 $275,000
Youth Alive 80 $480,000
Healing Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency
50 $170,000
Restorative Justice for Oakland
Youth
125 $470,000
Housing Abode Services 25 $150,000
Total $7,350,000
Table 7. Agencies Recommended for Funding Related to Gender-Based Violence Services.
Service category Agency Projected
people served
annually
Annual funding
amount
Core Services
Crisis navigation East Bay Asian Youth Center (Fiscal
sponsor for Survivors Healing,
Advising, and Dedicated to
Empowerment)
50 $250,000
The Family Violence Law Center 50 $250,000
Hotlines The Family Violence Law Center 500 $100,000
Life coaching for
youth
East Bay Asian Youth Center 20 $340,000
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 10
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
Service category Agency Projected
people served
annually
Annual funding
amount
Support
Services
Emergency
housing
Covenant House California 60 $200,000
Ruby’s Place 35 $200,000
Sister-to-Sister 2, Incorporated 60 $250,000
The Family Violence Law Center 50 $200,000
Healing Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency
100 $300,000
The Family Violence Law Center
(Fiscal sponsor for Mujeres Unidas
Y Activas)
450* $245,000
Oakland LGBTQ Community
Center, Inc.
400* $200,000
Young Women’s Freedom Center 400* $200,000
Legal services The Family Violence Law Center 125 $530,000 Transitional
housing
Building Opportunities for Self-
Sufficiency (Fiscal sponsor for Love
Never Fails)
15 $150,000
Total $3,415,000
*Projections include duplicated individuals since these are group services.
Table 8. Agencies Recommended for Funding Related to the School VIP Program.
Service category Agency Projected
people served
annually
Annual funding
amount
Core Services
GBV services The Family Violence Law Center 70 $850,000 Life coaching for
students at the
center of group
violence
East Bay Asian Youth Center 20 $260,000
Communities United for Restorative
Youth Justice
10 $130,000
Student Program for Academic and
Athletic Transitioning
10 $130,000
Youth Alive 20 $260,000
Violence
interruption
Communities United for Restorative
Youth Justice
N/A $210,000
Youth Alive N/A $210,000
Total $2,050,000
This resolution advances the citywide priority of holistic community safety by investing $12,815,000 in services that are intended to reduce group violence, gender-based violence, and trauma associated with these forms of violence by identifying and supporting those most at risk.
It also addresses the citywide priority of responsive, trustworthy government by ensuring that Measure NN funds are used for the intended purpose, managed using sound fiscal practices, and regularly evaluated to assess impact.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 11
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FISCAL IMPACT
This resolution will allow the City Administrator to execute one-year grant agreements with 21 community-based organizations for a total cost of $10,765,000, and nine-month grant agreements with six community-based organizations for a total cost of $2,050,000. All funding will come from Measure NN, available in Fund (2255), Organization (70211), Program (PS37), and Project (TBD).
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
Grant awards made by the DVP during Grant Year 2023-2025 were based on the DVP’s 2022- 2024 Strategic Spending Plan, which was developed in 2021 following an extensive community engagement process. From February to April 2021, DVP staff held three town halls – one in West Oakland, one in Central East Oakland, and one in Deep East Oakland – to solicit input from residents and community organizations on services funded by the DVP and to generate community-led ideas for additional intervention strategies. The DVP held a fourth town hall to focus specifically on youth and young adults impacted by violence. DVP staff hosted focus groups with program participants, family members who had lost loved ones to violence, DVP providers, community advocates, public health and violence prevention experts, Ceasefire partners, and Reimagining Public Safety Task Force members. DVP staff also conducted individual interviews with public systems partners from the Alameda County Probation Department, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, Oakland Unified School District, Alameda County Office of Education, and Alameda County Behavioral Health Department. In total, 430 people contributed insights to inform the spending plan over the two-month engagement period. The following themes emerged from the engagement process and informed the development of the 2022-2024 Spending Plan:
• Prioritize investments in people and places most impacted by violence. • Elevate and develop natural, homegrown expertise of community leaders to address violence prevention from within the community.
• Provide financial and employment supports that addresses the economic insecurity that leads to poverty and violence.
• Provide culturally-relevant mental health services to address multi-generational trauma and assist with individual and community healing.
• Improve coordination between and across city departments and community organizations.
• Educate the community on available resources delivered by the DVP and its network of partners.
In June and July 2024, DVP staff led an abbreviated feedback process to gather updated insights from staff, funded agencies, and participants about current services funded by the DVP, priorities, and gaps in services to inform awards made for Grant Year 2025-2026. This community feedback process involved the following components:
1. A survey shared with DVP staff, staff at funded agencies, and individuals who have received services funded by the DVP. The survey asked respondents to identify the top three most important services related to group violence, domestic violence, or sexual exploitation and provide commentary on critical service elements. The survey Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
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was translated into Spanish and Chinese and shared multiple times via email with program and leadership staff at funded agencies, as well as with internal DVP staff. The DVP received a total of 132 responses from 28 agencies.
2. Interviews with leadership from funded agencies. Interviews were led by DVP grant program staff and designed to solicit feedback on the strengths and challenges of current DVP-funded services. All currently funded agencies were invited to participate in the interviews, and the DVP completed interviews with leaders from 17 of 21 lead agencies.
Based on this feedback, lessons learned from previous years, and preliminary evaluation findings from the Urban Institute evaluation, the DVP leadership team identified priority strategies and services for Grant Year 2025-2026. The core services and values from the 2022- 2024 Spending Plan have been retained, but strategies have been streamlined and enhanced to focus resources on individuals and families who are at the center of group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation in Oakland. The DVP shared its proposed service adjustments with the Safety and Services Oversight Commission on August 26, 2024, and received positive feedback regarding the updated scope of services and focus population.
In preparation for this resolution and agenda report, DVP executive staff, planners, and program officers had conversations with all agencies identified to receive funding through the proposed grant awards to discuss funding amounts, scope of work pivots, and new data and fiscal practices. All agencies understand the content of this resolution and agenda report and have agreed to the required programmatic pivots, data collection practices, and fiscal practices.
COORDINATION
The City Attorney’s Office, Budget Bureau, City Administrator’s Office, and Mayor’s Office were consulted during the preparation of this agenda report and resolution. In addition to reviewing the resolution for accuracy, the City Attorney’s Office provided guidance to the DVP regarding spending requirements for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 based on Measure NN legislation.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION, AND FOLLOW-UP
Evidence-Based Strategies and Promising Practices
The community violence intervention services funded through the proposed awards are based on evidence-based strategies or promising practices intended to build protective factors and reduce risk among populations that are most vulnerable to group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation. Attachment B provides an overview of the evidence supporting these strategies.
Evaluation
The DVP will use a results-based accountability (RBA) framework to assess services delivered by funded agencies. An RBA framework poses three questions that allow service providers to distinguish between quantity, quality, and impact of services provided.
How much did we do?
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The DVP requires its funded service providers to enter data in its cloud-based data management system, Apricot 360, to track the quantity of services delivered within each funded service category. Types of process metrics tracked include the following:
o Number of individuals served
o Number of in-person contacts per week
o Number of total contacts per week
o Amount of funding disbursed
o Number of therapy and support groups hosted
o Number of individuals who attended therapy and support groups o Number of violence mediation conversations conducted
o Number of hospital visits conducted
During contract negotiations, the DVP establishes metrics for pre-identified deliverables that grantees are expected to meet during the grant award period. Payment withholdings are applied if agencies do not meet their pre-determined deliverable benchmarks. Attachment C provides grantee deliverables and performance from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024.
As of March 2025, DVP planners and program officers also receive monthly service reports for each agency they oversee to monitor enrollment, service engagement, and service completion.
Planners and program officers work closely with agency staff to correct any errors in data entry and support program staff in troubleshooting challenges with program implementation.
How well did we do it?
To assess the quality of services delivered, the DVP is currently developing exit surveys that participants will complete when they end services to collect feedback on the service experience.
Participants will have the option of submitting these surveys anonymously or providing their contact information to receive follow-up from a DVP staff member. This information will allow DVP staff to monitor the client service experience on an ongoing basis and support agencies in quickly addressing any challenges that arise and implementing quality improvement strategies.
Is anyone better off?
The impact of services delivered is a critical measurement of agency success. The DVP plans to enhance our capacity to understand the ways in which support strategies are showing up in the lives of participants impacted by group violence. Agencies will be assessed in several ways:
1. An exit survey completed by participants when ending services will include questions that assess change in mindsets, behaviors, social contexts, and support systems influenced by participation in DVP funded services. These results will be critical in assessing the impact of services and the mechanisms by which services increase protective factors among vulnerable populations and reduce the likelihood of outcomes such as victimization, perpetration, and incarceration.
2. The DVP will engage an external evaluation partner to analyze victimization, arrest, and incarceration data for individuals who engage in DVP services and consent for their data to be shared with a third-party evaluator. This analysis will compare outcomes for individuals who engaged in services to a comparison group that did not access services.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 14
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
3. The DVP will work with the City of Oakland’s Department of Race and Equity on analyses that center equity outcomes to assess the impact of services on racial disparities in experiences of violence.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: The DVP will award $12,815,000 in grants to community-based organizations located in Oakland that employ Oakland residents to deliver funded services. Many service categories also require disbursement of funds to individuals impacted by violence in Oakland, either as incentive payments, basic need funding, emergency relocation funding, or payments to support victims and families in healing after tragedy.
Environmental: There are no environmental opportunities associated with this report.
Race & Equity: DVP grants are intended to fund services for residents of Oakland who are most vulnerable to group violence, intimate partner violence, and commercial sexual exploitation, and the majority of individuals impacted by these forms of violence in Oakland are residents of color. In 2024, Black residents accounted for 33% of shooting victims and 65% of homicide victims despite representing 21% of the population. Similarly, Hispanic residents accounted for 42% of shooting victims despite representing 29% of the population. Domestic violence incidents reported to OPD in 2024 involved Black residents as victims in 50% of cases and Latinx individuals as victims in 32% of cases. Services funded by the DVP are intended to reduce experiences of these forms of violence and the associated trauma, thus moving Oakland closer to racial equity. Additionally, funded agencies use a credible messenger model to hire staff members with lived experiences and racial backgrounds that mirror the population served.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution:
1. Awarding Twenty-One Grants To The Community-Based Organizations Set Forth In Tables 1 And 2 To Provide Community Violence Intervention Services For The Period Of October 1, 2025, To September 30, 2026, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Ten Million Seven Hundred Sixty-Five Thousand Dollars ($10,765,000); And
2. Awarding Five Grants To The Community-Based Organizations Set Forth In Table 3 To Provide School-Based Violence Intervention Services For The Period Of October 1, 2025, To June 30, 2026, In A Total Amount Not To Exceed Two Million Fifty Thousand Dollars ($2,050,000); And
3. Authorizing The City Administrator To Negotiate And Enter Into Grant Agreements With Grantees With Authority To Extend The Terms Of The Grant And Modify The Grant Amounts As Set Forth Herein Without Returning To Council
For questions regarding this report, please contact Holly Joshi, Chief of Violence Prevention, at (510) 920-6272.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: DVP Grants to Community-Based Organizations for Grant Year 2025-2026 Date: April 14, 2025 Page 15
Public Safety Committee
May 13, 2025
Respectfully submitted,
Holly Joshi
Chief of Violence Prevention, Department of
Violence Prevention
Reviewed by:
Mailee Wang, Deputy Chief of Administration
Prepared by:
Jenny Linchey, Deputy Chief of Grants,
Programs, and Evaluation
Attachments (3):
• Attachment A: Scopes of work for Grant Year 2025-2026 awards • Attachment B: Evidence-base for funded strategies
• Attachment C: Performance data for DVP grantees from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024
Holly Joshi (Apr 29, 2025 15:25 PDT)