NSE AGENDA: 9/14/23
ITEM: (d)2
TO: NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES FROM: Jon Cicirelli
AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE PRNS
SUBJECT: NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER DATE: August 28, 2023
PARTNER PROGRAM UPDATE
Approved Date
9/7/23
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
RECOMMENDATION
Accept an annual report on the Neighborhood Center Partner Program work plan recommendations and audit implementation.
SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
The Neighborhood Services and Education Committee will receive a status report regarding the Neighborhood Center Partner Program (NCPP) 2022 operating year including new program updates and progress in its response to the audit recommendations.
BACKGROUND
In 2008, the City of San José (City) took a bold step towards preserving the safety and accessibility of community centers in the face of budgetary challenges. San José City Council responded to these challenges by passing the Community Center Reuse Policy (Council Policy 7-12)
1 , which set the framework for the Facility Reuse Program in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services (Department). The program’s goal was to establish partnerships with community service providers to maintain services at the Department’s community centers. This was achieved by offering agencies non-exclusive use of certain centers (called Neighborhood Centers) at no cost in exchange for services primarily benefitting San José residents.
1 You can find Council Policy 7-12 here:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument?id=12769
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
Neighborhood Centers operate differently from Hub Community Centers. Each council district has one main Hub Community Center (e.g., Almaden Community Center, Mayfair Community Center, etc.). The Hubs offer classes, programs, activities and special events, which are planned, programmed, and facilitated by City staff to meet the varied recreational needs of a diverse community. The Neighborhood Centers operated by non-profit partners offer more focused and limited level of services in comparison to Hubs. Some Neighborhood Centers have hybrid operations, where programs and services at those locations are provided by NCPP partners and City staff. Hybrid City programming examples can include the Senior Nutrition Program (SNP), Teen Centers, afterschool programming, and summer camps.
In 2018, the City Auditor’s Office conducted an audit of the Community Center Reuse Program, 2 which is administered by the Department. The audit included recommendations to ensure transparency in the selection process for the program, ensure proper contract compliance, and create effective monitoring processes. Since then, the Department has worked toward assessing the former structure of the Community Center Reuse Program and seeks to generate ideas on how to better implement reporting requirements, establish and monitor contracted goals, and improve oversight of the program. In December 2019, the Department presented an update to the City Council to introduce the newly rebranded program, now known as the Neighborhood Center Partner Program (NCPP). This rebranding recognizes that the strength of the program is determined by our community-based partners that provide services at our Neighborhood Centers.
The Department has worked toward revitalizing and rebranding the program with goals that extend beyond just maintaining services at the Neighborhood Centers. Instead, the Department seeks to maintain safe, quality, and operational facilities; ensure timely transparent processes for operator selection; establish consistent enforcement accountability standards and metrics; improve community access and knowledge of activities; and, increase the number of providers and services in disadvantaged communities.
The Department conducted a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Neighborhood Center Partner Program in January 2021. The RFQ outlined new reporting requirements to ensure that the Department receives information on contracted and actual reported services by program activity across all service providers. The current list of NCPP RFQ-qualified pool of service providers is outlined in Attachment A.
ANALYSIS
Summary of Monitoring and Reporting Requirements
As PRNS rebranded the program to focus on community-based organization partnerships and services at Neighborhood Centers, the Department also enhanced program monitoring and reporting requirements to effectively evaluate agency performance, service outputs, and 2 You can find the audit report here:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/32499/636722685222700000
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
community outcomes. The new monitoring and reporting requirements were implemented in 2022, which was the first year of the RFQ period.
Monitoring and Reporting Requirements
With new reporting requirements beginning in year one of the new RFQ period (2022), the Department began to receive feedback from partner agencies, expressing concerns about the volume of new administrative requirements, mainly regarding the number of forms (calendar schedules, hours tracker, participant demographics, etc.), the number of data elements in the demographic worksheet (age, NCPP Priority Service Area served in, ethnicity, etc.) and financial data that the agency was required to collect and include in biannual reports. NCPP administrative staff conducted several feedback sessions and site visits with agencies and discussed challenges to better understand specific systems used to collect contracted information and data, as well as the issues each agency faced with the collection and reporting of specific data elements. NCPP administrative staff gathered the feedback and took a close look at each form and the types of data that was being collected.
Ultimately, staff was able to remove some of the required data elements that were not critical to evaluating outputs or outcomes. Staff was also able to successfully streamline and simplify required forms. In conducting several feedback sessions and site visits with partner agencies, staff explored ways to reduce agencies’ administrative requirements, eliminating unnecessary burdens, such as reducing reporting frequencies for certain types of data and simplifying tools and forms, where possible. Staff was careful to retain the necessary oversight and accountability infrastructure needed to ensure that community needs are being appropriately served, in accordance with the NCPP’s contractual commitments. Table A below outlines the 2022 requirements and changes that were made to the 2023 program. In the current year, NCPP
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
administrative staff will continue to evaluate monitoring and reporting requirements and elicit feedback from partners to understand ways the program can streamline requirements while adequately tracking program performance and outcomes.
Table A: Changes to Reporting Requirements
2022 Reporting Requirement 2023 Reporting Change
All reports are submitted twice per year. Reduced the collection of unnecessary financial info and decreased the collection of
performance measures to once per year.
Report forms were all separate Word
documents.
Report forms were consolidated into one
Excel workbook with different worksheets for
each report.
Monthly calendars and total operating hours
submitted in a separate document.
Monthly calendars and total operating hours
are consolidated into one worksheet in the
same Excel workbook.
Participant demographic data (age, zip code,
NCPP Priority Area served in, ethnicity)
tracked in a separate standardized Excel form.
Areas eliminated to reduce demographic data
collected by partners. Currently only tracking
unduplicated count of participants served and
zip code data. Partners who are actively
collecting full demographics can still submit
the data, but it is no longer required. Data
now submitted under the narrative tab section
of the consolidated workbook.
Financial Report included Balance, Profits &
Loss, list of program fees, expenses, and
financial accessibility.
Balance, profit, and loss removed from
financial report, as these elements are not an
indication of program performance or
community accessibility.
Community Center Direct Service Hours
In 2022, eleven (11) NCPP partners and six (6) subcontractors operated fourteen (14) NCPP sites (See Attachment B for partners who provide services at NCPP Neighborhood Centers). NCPP partners and subcontractors provided approximately 31,080 hours of service at the 14 Neighborhood Centers, which was 109% of what agencies were contracted to provide (28,632 hours of service). Per the obligations outlined in the RFQ, selected Neighborhood Center service providers are responsible for delivering a minimum of 30.1 hours per week of direct services, which amounts to 1,565 hours per center. As NCPP administrative staff began to evaluate the monthly hours reported by partners, they found that although the program exceeded the overall
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
contracted hours, smaller centers were experiencing shortfalls based on the direct service hour requirement of 1,565. Prospectively, staff will look at available space at each center to optimize use of the facility while holding our partners accountable to a requirement that matches their designated center size and programming capacity.
Table B: 2022 Neighborhood Center Partner Program Direct Service Hours Total Contracted
Hours
Total Actual Hours
NCPP Providers 28,632 31,080
City-Staffed Programs 4,836*
Total Actual Hours Provided 35,916
*These hours only reflect services at a hybrid site.
Table C: 2022 Total Participants Served at NCPP Community Centers NCPP Providers 4,646
City-Staffed Programs 5,189
Total 9,835
Note: NCPP providers are not contracted to serve a specific number of participants, but do report on who they serve in the demographic report.
Audit Update
The NCPP program’s 2018 audit made 19 recommendations related to four findings: 1) Better facility level data can inform the future of the Reuse Program; 2) PRNS can better ensure service providers meet contracted terms; 3) Opportunities exist to improve efficiency of Reuse management; and, 4) PRNS should ensure transparency in the selection process for reuse providers. The Department completed 16 of the 19 recommendations as of December 31, 2022, and continues to make progress on three (3) partly-implemented audit recommendations, which can be found in the most recent Status of Open Audit Recommendations3 (Report #18-06, pg. 42- 43).
Opportunities for Improvements and Next Steps
3 Link to the audit update can be found here:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/95577/638146450353200000
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
The Department recognizes that there are opportunities for improvements to the Neighborhood Center Partner Program. Staff continues to make adjustments to the program to meet the changing needs of the community and our partners. The following options have been identified for future consideration:
• Provide an opportunity every three (3) years to refresh the qualified pool of service providers to maximize utilization of facilities instead of the previous nine (9) year waiting period for a new RFQ pool.
• Continue reviewing the practicality and sustainability of the direct service hours requirement for smaller Neighborhood Centers.
• Continue reviewing the monitoring and reporting requirements to determine if there are areas where the department can streamline or simplify forms and/or processes.
The Department will continue monitoring NCPP providers for contract compliance while gathering feedback on the updated reporting requirements. Additionally, the facilities’ capital infrastructure assessments are completed, which will guide the Department and Public Works in prioritizing future repairs and improvements.
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’s Budget Office.
Not a Project, Public Project Number PP17-009, Staff Reports, Assessments, Annual Reports, and Information Memos that involve no approvals of any City action. /S/
JON CICIRELLI
Director of Parks, Recreation
and Neighborhood Services
For questions, please contact Pauline Khek, Parks, Recreation and Facilities Supervisor at [email protected].
Attachment A: NCPP Service Provider Qualified Pool
Attachment B: 2022 NCPP Community Center Provider Li
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
Attachment A
NCPP 2021 RFQ Qualified Providers
Agency Name
Kidango, Inc.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
International Children Assistance Network (ICAN)
Korean American Community Services, Inc (KACS)
The Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation, Inc. (VIVO)
Silicon Valley Korean American Federation
Kaisahan of San Jose Dance Company
Arab American Cultural Center of Silicon Valley
Opening Doors 2020
American Youth Shakespeare
Chopsticks Alley Art
Northside Theatre Council
Veterans Supportive Services Agency
Asian Americans for Community Involvement
Assyrian American Association of San Jose
Ethiopian Community Services, Inc.
YWCA of Silicon Valley
Our City Forest
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
August 28, 2023
Subject: Neighborhood Center Partner Program Update
Attachment B
2022 NCPP Neighborhood Center Provider List
NCPP Center District Contracted Provider Subcontracting Partners Almaden Winery
Community Center
10 Assyrian American
Association of San Jose
Alum Rock Youth
Center
5 Boys & Girls Clubs of
Silicon Valley (BGC)
Alviso Youth Center 4 BGC
Capitol Park/Goss
Community Center
5 Asian Americans for
Community Involvement
Edenvale Community
Center
2 BGC; Catholic Charities/First
5 FRC
YMCA;
Edenvale Youth
Center
2 BGC
Gardner Community
Center
6 Chopsticks Alley Art
Houge Community
Center
9 American Youth Shakespeare San Jose Astronomical
Association;
Arab American Cultural
Center
Meadowfair
Community Center
8 Kidango
Noble Community
Center
4 Veterans Supportive Services
Association
Olinder Community
Center
3 Chopsticks Alley Art Starting Arts
Rainbow Community
Center
1 Ethiopian Community
Services
Vietnamese American
Community Center
(VACC)/Shirakawa
Community Center
7 Vietnamese Voluntary
Foundation (VIVO);
International Children
Assistance Network (ICAN)
Washington United
Youth Center
3 Catholic Charities of Santa
Clara County
Santa Clara County Office of
Education Opportunity Youth
Academy (SCCOE OYA);
Healing Grove