Memorandum — Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse), March 14, 2024

TO: NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND FROM: Jon Cicirelli

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: February 26, 2024

Approved Date
3/7/24
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
SUBJECT: SAN JOSE YOUTH EMPOWERMENT ALLIANCE - BRINGING EVERYONE’S STRENGTHS TOGETHER, SAFE SUMMER INITIATIVE

GRANT, AND YOUTH INTERVENTION SERVICES PROGRAMS

ANNUAL REPORT

RECOMMENDATION
Accept this annual report on the San José Youth Empowerment Alliance - Bringing Everyone’s Strengths Together (BEST), Safe Summer Initiative Grant, and Youth Intervention Services programs for 2022-2023.

SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
The youth population in San José who are ages 0-17 account for 22% of the city’s one million residents, and an additional 9% of the population are between 18-24 years of age1. The San José Youth Empowerment Alliance (YEA), the City’s violence reduction strategy, invests in both community-based programming and City-based intervention services for youth ages 6-24. In 2022-23, the Youth Intervention Services Unit and grant-funded providers through the Bringing Everyone’s Strength Together (BEST) and Safe Summer Initiative Grants (SSIG) together served 8,385 young people in 2022-23.

Key 2022-23 Program Outcomes:
 30 percent increase in better social-emotional outcomes and skill development for youth served through the BEST Grant Program.
 94 percent of participants reported being connected to a caring adult through SSIG. Up by 21 percent from prior year.
1 United States Census Bureau – Quick facts. Retrieved 3/24/22 from United States Census Quick Facts COUNCIL AGENDA: 3/14/24
ITEM: (d)2

NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
February 26, 2024
Subject: San José Youth Empowerment Alliance (formerly Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force) Bringing Everyone’s Strengths Together, Safe Summer Initiative Grant, and Youth Intervention Services Programs Annual Report

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 93 percent of the 60 schools responding rated Safe School Campus Initiative efforts as excellent or good.
 92 percent of the 62 responding schools said the Safe School Campus Initiative exceeded or met their needs.

Youth violence prevention cannot be done by one entity alone. The strong culture of relationship building and interagency collaboration through the Technical Team and Policy Team of the Youth Empowerment Alliance has helped to break down silos and leverage existing resources in support of shared goals.

BACKGROUND
The Youth Empowerment Alliance is the collective impact model that advances the City of San José’s youth violence reduction and gang intervention strategy with stakeholders across several sectors. The City’s direct efforts consists of two programs. First, the Youth Intervention Services team, within the Community Services Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (Department), offers seven direct service programs to young people ages 6 to 24, who exhibit higher-risk characteristics for youth violence. The Department also administers two City-funded grant programs that support community-based organizations, the Bringing Everyone’s Strengths Together (BEST) and the Safe Summer Initiative Grant (SSIG) programs. The grant programs are designed to keep young people engaged in pro-social activities and help them build on their strengths and reduce risk for involvement in youth violence. The seven City-provided programs and the two grant programs have significant coordination with each other, as illustrated by Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: San José Youth Empowerment Alliance Programs

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ANALYSIS
This section outlines the funding allocation, services implemented, outcomes achieved, and new projects initiated because of this collaborative model. Measuring program implementation is a function of how well the evaluated programs and services align with the theories of change and scopes of service identified for each program. This is done in the context of the Youth Empowerment Alliance broader strategic plan, including services to populations exhibiting various risk characteristics and the locations that are identified as most in-need.

Funding Distribution
As outlined in Figure 2 below, the 2022-2023 funding allocation for the Alliance comprised a total of $8,826,547, with YIS/BEST/SSIG Programs and Administration budgeted for $5,696,507, BEST Grants budgeted for $2,550,402, and $579,638 for SSIG Grants. The San Jose Youth Empowerment Alliance budget includes General Fund appropriations, including the BEST appropriation and the PRNS Personal and Non-Personal appropriations.

Figure 2: City Funding Allocation for Youth Empowerment Alliance Effort of Implementation & Program Outcomes
In 2022-23, the Youth Empowerment Alliance provided services through the City staff led Youth Intervention Services (YIS) Unit, as well as through grant funded providers under the Bringing Everyone’s Strength Together (BEST) and Safe Summer Initiative Grant (SSIG) grant programs.

Altogether, YIS, BEST, and SSIG served 8,385 young people in 2022-2023 for a combined 227,508 hours of services. This includes 65,641 hours provided by Youth Intervention Services and 161,867 hours provided by BEST grantees which is a 33 percent increase in BEST hours above 2021-2022. The BEST grantees delivered youth development groups at 28 San José

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schools, parenting supportive services at eight supportive housing complexes, and case management services to vulnerable youth and families. Priority Neighborhoods received 40,780 hours of service delivery. These areas currently face the most persistent challenges, including interpersonal conflict, gang-related activity and crimes, and systemic issues of marginalization.

Because of these factors, Priority Neighborhoods are intentionally prioritized to receive services, resources, and support through the BEST grant program.

Table 1: Youth Empowerment Alliance
Participant Characteristics by Year
2021-2022 2022-2023

BEST SSIG YIS TOTAL BEST SSIG YIS TOTAL
Participants 3,036 2,872 1,701 7,609 3,366 2,144 2,875 8,385 Female 51.5% 22% 50.5% 36%
Male 47.9% 78% 48.9% 64%
Non-Binary 0.80% - 0.60% -
Target Population Distribution by Risk Category
At Risk 40% 59% - 30% 64% -
High Risk 40% 20% - 50% 17% -
Gang Impacted 13% 11% 100% 11% 11% 100%
Gang Intentional 7% 10% - 9% 8% -
Bringing Everyone’s Strengths Together (B.E.S.T.)
The BEST Grant Program funded 14 agencies to provide services from one or more eligible service areas (Appendix A). To gauge productivity and the level of service provided by BEST grantees, Units of Services (UOS) are measured by multiplying the number of participants served by the number of sessions provided by the hours spent delivering the proposed services.

As displayed in Table 2 below, BEST grantees cumulatively provided more than 100% of the projected number of UOS in 2022-2023 (161,867 of the 105,473 projected), surpassing projections in all five BEST Eligible Service Areas. The substantial increase in UOS compared to previous years reflects the continued return to in person and group services, and the demand for these services from schools and partners.

It is important to note that BEST grantees who provide Street Outreach intervention services do not collect demographic information for participants and therefore are not reflected in Table 1 above. Instead, the number of individuals is measured by the number of “cold street contacts” made while conducting outreach in Priority Neighborhoods (formerly known as Gang Hot Spot

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Areas)2. They reported an estimated 6,054 contacts3 with youth, a substantial 250% increase from the 2,640 contacts made in 2021-2022 in the 25 Emerging and Priority Neighborhoods.

Table 2: BEST Units of Service (UOS) by Eligible Service Area and Year 2021-2022 2022-2023
Eligible Service Area Projected
UOS
Actual
UOS
Projected
UOS
Actual
UOS
Change
compared
to 21-22
Personal Transformation 47,553 56,509 51,029 67,079 🔺 19% Street Outreach/ Intervention 15,453 24,164 16,922 40,780 🔺 69% Vocational/Job Training 1,972 1,558 1,852 2,678 🔺 72%
Family Support 4,408 4,775 4,408 6,351 🔺 33%
Case Management 30,093 34,747 31,262 44,979 🔺 29%
Total 99,479 121,753 105,473 161,867 🔺 33%
RDA Consulting, an independent evaluation firm, evaluated the BEST Grant Program performance4 in three key areas including: 1) participant satisfaction; 2) participant outcomes; and 3) participant photovoice.

Participant Satisfaction: The results from the youth survey, displayed in Appendix B, Table B2 suggest an overall high level of satisfaction with BEST-funded programs. Eighty six percent of participants reported always or often wanting to keep coming to the program and over 90 percent of youth developed relationships with a caring adult in the program.

Participant Outcomes: Participants consistently displayed improved youth outcomes after participating in BEST-funded programs. These results, displayed in Appendix B, Table B1 suggest that participants tend to feel more confident to handle what comes their way, report increased engagement in school and/or their job, and obtain greater confidence in their decisionmaking ability after participating in their program.

Participant Photovoice: Participants were invited to take photographs in response to a series of prompts using a personal camera known as Photovoice. The goal of the photovoice project was to allow participants to illustrate, highlight, and capture their experience and program impact through their own unique lens and voice. Youth reported feeling they “have some kind of support that wouldn’t leave me behind”, “an opportunity to get the resources I needed to be healthy and 2 The 18 Priority Neighborhoods (formerly known as Gang Hot Spots) and 7 Emerging Priority Neighborhoods can be found on the following Map.
3 To calculate the total number of contacts, RDA Consulting added the number of estimated contacts that grantees reported for each street outreach location to arrive at the total estimated number of contacts in the program year.

These numbers include duplicate youth within and across priority neighborhood areas. 4 Please refer to BEST 2022-2023 Evaluation Report to access full report.

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build a foundation for myself”, and “hav[ing] the power to make so much change, starting with ourselves and looking internally.” One respondent said that BEST staff gave “me a safe space and someone to talk to” and “show[ed] a different view of the world and that there is more to it than just the streets.”
Safe Summer Initiative Grant Program (SSIG)
In the summer of 2023, SSIG Grantees met and exceeded the four key performance targets around feeling safe and satisfied with programming, as well as feeling connected to resources and caring adults. Youth reported a significant increase of 21 percent over the prior summer in feeling connected to a caring adult. This is attributable to several factors including an increase in engagement between grantee staff and youth and the quality of programs offered in 2022-23.

Table 3: SSIG 2023 Survey Results by Year
2022 2023 Change compared to 2022
Felt SSIG was a safe program 89% 95% 🔺 6%
Felt satisfied with program 89% 90% 🔺 1%
Connected to a caring adult through SSIG 73% 94% 🔺 21%
Learned about the other resources through SSIG 89% 92% 🔺 3% Youth Intervention Services
In 2022-2023, Youth Intervention Services continued a full return to in-person operations. In Table 4, the seven programs collectively provided 65,641 units of services to youth and young adults with units of service corresponding to hours of service provided.

Table 4: Youth Intervention Services Units of Services (UOS) by Program 2022-2023 Program Description Units of Service
Safe School Campus Initiative Responds to incidents/threats at 82 campuses; provides case management.
21,056
Female Intervention Team Provides culturally based classes for young women; case management.
5,297
Clean Slate Tattoo Removal Provides removal of visible gang tattoos and support for self-sufficiency
2,311
San Jose Works Provides summer jobs in City
departments, non-profits.
17,640
Digital Arts Provides training in audio/visual
production.
2,760

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Trauma to Triumph Case management for victims of youth
violence identified at hospital trauma
centers.
6,038
Late Night Gym Recreation program once a week at
three sites.
10,539
Total 65,641
Safe School Campus Initiative
Safe School Campus Initiative (SSCI) responds to incidents of youth violence, or threats of youth violence, on 82 designated high school and middle school campuses. Performance is measured by annual surveys completed by school leadership teams regarding the program’s efforts. Over 90 percent of school leaders value the response and coordination by the Youth Intervention team at keeping their school campuses safe. The success of the program is attributed to the coordination of Department staff, San Jose Police Department School Liaison Officers, and school leadership teams (principals, teachers, school-employed mental health professionals) who activate a crisis response protocol aimed at preventing and de-escalating violent incidents on school campuses.

Table 5: SSCI Survey Results
Question 2021-22 2022-23
Efforts at keeping schools safe as good or excellent. 93.3% 93.3% Met or exceeded their needs 92.0% 91.9%
Youth Empowerment Alliance Strategic Plan
On January 31, 2023, the City Council adopted the Alliance’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan5, which established the objectives and priorities of the Alliance over the three-year period. The use of a new accountability system of developing annual Objectives and Key Results (or OKRs) was instituted. The plan identified four strategic objectives to address youth violence:

1. Prevention - Increase knowledge and protective factors among young people

2. Intervention - Decrease youth risk factors in priority neighborhoods and schools

3. Diversion/Reentry - Divert from incarceration and reduce recidivism among youth ages 12-24

4. Healing - Advance trauma-informed, healing approaches For Year 1 of the strategic plan, the Policy Team adopted an aggressive plan to complete 12 OKRs by December 31, 2023. By the end of the calendar year, four OKRs were completed, six were in process, and two were unable to get started. At the February 22, 2024 Policy Team 5 Full Alliance Strategic Plan can be found here San Jose Youth Empowerment Strategic Plan 2023-2025

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meeting, the OKRs for Year 2 (2024) were reviewed and nine OKRs are the focus during the year and outlined in Appendix C. Indicative of the collective power of the Youth Empowerment Alliance, drivers of the key results include County department partners from Public Health, District Attorney, and Probation as well as the City Manager’s Office and PRNS staff for the Youth Empowerment Alliance.

The YEA Data Workgroup (Workgroup) led by PRNS-Youth Empowerment Alliance staff was formed to track key community-wide impacts related to youth violence and how the City’s youth are doing overall in achieving educational and safety benchmarks. It includes representatives from the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, Probation Department, San Jose Police Department, Santa Clara County Office of Children and Family Policy, Kids in Common, and Office of the City Manager.

The indicators outlined below will be used to inform the Council, YEA Policy Team and key stakeholders on an annual basis. Data is already being collected from partners, with 2022-2023 identified as the baseline year. Disaggregating the data by race/ethnicity is a goal of the Workgroup, as this will allow us to assess our ability to serve our diverse communities.

Community-Wide Indicators
 Decreased youth (10-24) violence incidents, injury, and homicide.  Decreased youth (10-24) arrests and recidivism.
 Improved perceptions of neighborhood safety.
 Decreased chronic absenteeism.
 Increased on time high school graduation.

Looking Forward
In 2024, staff plans to roll out a modernized data management system that will allow the grantees and staff to collect, validate, organize, and access data through an online secure platform. This new solution will help to enhance effective service implementation, track outcomes, and inform decision-making. Also, staff continues its ongoing partnership with Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits to improve contract processing and share best practices through the Community of Learning.

In addition to BEST, and per the 2019 Audit, Youth Intervention will expand outcome evaluation from Safe School Campus Initiative to the other six programs through an annual evaluation process starting in 2024-25. A Request for Proposals will be issued early in March 2024, with a new list of consultants expected to be available in May.

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COORDINATION
This memo was coordinated with the City Manager’s Budget Office and City Attorney Office. /s/

JON CICIRELLI
Director, Parks, Recreation, and
Neighborhood Services
For questions, please contact Andrea Flores Shelton, Deputy Director, at [email protected] or (408) 834-0603.

Appendix A: BEST Service Strategy Areas by Grantee
Appendix B: 2022-2023 BEST Survey Results: Youth Participants, Ages 11-24 Appendix C: Youth Empowerment Alliance - Objectives and Key Results, Year 1-2 Update

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APPENDIX A:

BEST Service Strategy Areas by Grantee
Grantee
by Service Area
Personal
Transformation
Street
Outreach
Vocational/
Job
Training
Family
Support
Case
Management Total
Alum Rock Counseling
Center
  2
Bay Area Tutoring
Association
 1
Bill Wilson Center    3
Caminar    3
Catholic Charities of
Santa Clara County
   3
ConXión to Community   2
Fresh Lifelines for Youth   2
New Hope for Youth    3
Pacific Clinics  1
San José Jazz  1
Shine Together   2
The Art of Yoga Project  1
The Tenacious Group  1
Ujima Adult and Family
Services, Inc.
  2
Total Number of
Grantees
14 2 2 1 8 27

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APPENDIX B:

BEST Survey Results 2022-2023
Table B1: BEST Program Outcomes - Youth Participants, Ages 11-24* Participant Outcome Results
New
Participant
Established
Participant
I feel connected to my school and/or job 2.3 3.0
There is an adult I can go to who cares about me 2.8 3.5 I think things through carefully before making decisions 2.6 3.2 I can handle problems or challenges when they come my way 2.7 3.3 I stay away from friends who pressure me to make bad decisions 2.7 3.4 There is someone I can talk to about my feelings 2.5 3.3 I know about other resources or opportunities that could be helpful to me 2.4 3.3 I have goals and plans for the future 2.8 3.5
*Survey scale of 1-4.

Table B2: BEST Program Participant Satisfaction - Youth Participants, Ages 11-24 Participant Satisfaction Results
Sometimes/
Never/Rarely
Often/
Always Target
I want to keep coming to this program 14% 86%
80%
I have learned a lot of new things here 17% 83%
This program helps me get along with other people my age 24% 76% I have felt respected by program staff 8% 92%
There is an adult at this program who cares about me 10% 90% In this program, adults listen to what I have to say 10% 90% The people who work at this program understand my identity, such as my cultural, racial, ethnic, or gender identity 9% 91%
Program staff can communicate with me in the language of my choice 10% 90% I feel safe in this program 9% 91%
I've learned new skills that are helpful to me 15% 85%
*Note that this table reflects results from the Youth Survey which was administered to youth ages 11-24. The Child Survey, administered to participants ages 7-10, did not incorporate the above set of questions.

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APPENDIX C:

Youth Empowerment Alliance - Objectives and Key Results, Year 1-2 Update

Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse)March 14, 2024

Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse)
March 14, 2024