Public Safety Committee
October 28, 2025
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Holly Joshi
City Administrator Chief of Violence
Prevention
SUBJECT: Amendment to PSA with The Urban
Institute for Grant Evaluation Services
DATE: September 29, 2025
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator To Extend The End Date Of A Professional Services Agreement With The Urban Institute For Evaluation Services, In The Amount Of Three Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($325,000), From December 31, 2025, To June 30, 2026, At No Additional Cost.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed resolution, if adopted, will authorize the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) to extend the end date of a contract with The Urban Institute for evaluation services pertaining to a state grant from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026, for no additional cost. This amendment aligns the end date of the evaluation contract with the end date of the grant, which also changed from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
In July 2022, the DVP received a grant through Cohort 4 of the California Board of State and Community Corrections’ California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program in the amount of $5,999,948 for the term of July 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025 (Resolution No. 89367 C.M.S.). The purpose of the grant was to focus services and resources on individuals at the highest risk for group violence in Oakland in order to reduce shootings and homicides. The grant currently funds life coaches in the DVP who work with individuals identified by the Ceasefire-Lifeline partnership team as being at the highest risk for near-term gun violence, and it provides incentives, flexible funding, and training to support personal transformation among this population.
As a condition of this grant, the DVP is required to develop and submit an initial evaluation plan and final evaluation report to the BSCC, and the BSCC encourages grantees to contract with an external evaluation firm to perform this work. Resolution No. 89367 C.M.S. authorized the DVP Jestin Johnson (Oct 10, 2025 15:27:15 PDT)
10/10/2025
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Amendment to PSA with The Urban Institute for grant evaluation services Date: September 29, 2025 Page 2
Public Safety Committee
October 28, 2025
to contract with The Urban Institute to evaluate outcomes for this grant and develop the required initial evaluation plan and final evaluation report, and the DVP executed a grant with The Urban Institute for $325,000 for the term of September 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025, to align with the end date of the grant.
In January 2025, the BSCC notified the DVP that it would be extending the grant end date by six months, from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026. The original grant term required programming to end on June 30, 2025, but provided an additional six months (through December 31, 2025) for grantees to complete their final evaluation report and required fiscal audit. The new grant term requires programming to end on December 31, 2025, but provides an additional six months (through June 30, 2026) for grantees to complete their final evaluation report and required fiscal audit. In April 2025, the City of Oakland and BSCC executed a grant amendment agreeing to this updated grant term.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
The proposed resolution would authorize the DVP to extend the end date of its current contract with The Urban Institute for CalVIP evaluation services from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2026, to align with the new end date of the grant. The new grant period allows grant-funded programming to continue until December 31, 2025, and then provides six months for grantees to complete their final evaluation reports and fiscal audits. The Urban Institute must analyze and incorporate program data through December 31, 2025, in the final evaluation report that it prepares for the DVP to submit to the BSCC by June 30, 2026. If the DVP does not extend the end date of The Urban Institute’s current contract, the research team will need to finalize their evaluation report by December 31, 2025, and will only be able to include program data through September 30, 2025, which is out of alignment with the direction given by the state funder.
The proposed resolution advances the citywide priority of holistic community safety by allowing The Urban Institute to evaluate the impact of services delivered by DVP life coaches to individuals at the highest risk of group violence in Oakland to generate learnings that may enhance service delivery and future outcomes.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with this resolution, as no additional funds will be added to The Urban Institute’s existing contract. Funding for the current contract is available through the California Board of State and Community Corrections Fund (2152), Oakland Unite Org (70211), CALVIP 2022-2025 Project (1006525), and Fostering Safe and Healthy Communities Program (SC22).
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
No public outreach was deemed necessary for this resolution and agenda report.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Amendment to PSA with The Urban Institute for grant evaluation services Date: September 29, 2025 Page 3
Public Safety Committee
October 28, 2025
COORDINATION
The City Attorney’s Office, Budget Bureau, and City Administrator’s Office were consulted during the preparation of this resolution and agenda report.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION, AND FOLLOW-UP
The City of Oakland employs the evidence-based, data-driven strategy for reducing gun violence known as focused deterrence. This approach focuses social services and law enforcement efforts on the small segment of the population—less than 1%—responsible for the majority of gun violence. Nationally, this model is referred to as Ceasefire. In Oakland, it is known as Ceasefire-Lifeline to reflect the model’s two interwoven components: the Ceasefire enforcement arm, led by the Oakland Police Department (OPD), and the Lifeline services arm, delivered by the DVP and partially funded by the DVP’s CalVIP Cohort 4 grant. The goals of Ceasefire-Lifeline are to prevent gun violence, reduce the footprint of the criminal justice system, and support high-risk individuals in achieving long-term safety and stability.
Research has identified focused deterrence as one of the most effective community violence intervention (CVI) strategies. A 2016 meta-review that analyzed over 1,400 research studies identified focused deterrence as one of only two CVI strategies with a moderate to strong effect on crime and violence.1 A subsequent meta-analysis of 24 focused deterrence evaluations confirmed that focused deterrence interventions have a statistically significant effect on reducing crime.2 Drs. Anthony Braga and Lisa Barao evaluated Oakland’s Ceasefire-Lifeline strategy from its implementation in 2012 to 2017 and found that 32% of the city’s nearly 50% reduction in homicides during that time was attributable to the strategy.3 Oakland disinvested from the strategy from 2019 to 2023, and shootings and homicides increased from 67 in 2018 to 119 in 2023. Following reimplementation of the model with fidelity in February 2024, Oakland ended the year with a reduction of 34% in homicides and 33% in shootings. As of September 21, Oakland has experienced 201 shootings and 45 homicides in 2025, representing a cumulative reduction of 48% and 49% in shootings and homicides, respectively, compared to 2023.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: There are no economic opportunities associated with this report.
Environmental: There are no environmental opportunities associated with this report.
Race & Equity: The DVP’s CalVIP Cohort 4 grant funds intensive life coaching services for individuals at the highest risk of near-term gun violence in Oakland, the vast majority of whom
1 Abt, T., & Winship, C. (2016). What works in reducing community violence: A meta-review and field study for the Northern Triangle. United States Agency for International Development. 2 Braga, A. A., Weisburd, D. L., & Turchan, B. (2018). Focused deterrence strategies and crime control:
An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. Criminology & Public Policy, 17(1), 205–250.
3 Braga, A. A., Barao, L. M., & Zimmerman, G., et al. (2019, May). Oakland Ceasefire evaluation: Final report to the City of Oakland. California Partnership for Safe Communities & Northeastern University.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Amendment to PSA with The Urban Institute for grant evaluation services Date: September 29, 2025 Page 4
Public Safety Committee
October 28, 2025
are Black and Latino men. By evaluating the impact of these services, we can deepen our understanding of the mechanisms by which they reduce shootings and homicides and generate learnings that will further refine service delivery in the future.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator To Extend The End Date Of A Professional Services Agreement With The Urban Institute For Evaluation Services, In The Amount Of Three Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($325,000), From December 31, 2025, To June 30, 2026, At No Additional Cost.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Holly Joshi, Chief of Violence Prevention, at (510) 920-6272.
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
Holly Joshi (Oct 7, 2025 22:57:37 GMT+1)