Agenda packet — Santa Cruz City Council, June 7, 2022

CITY OF SANTA CRUZ
809 Center Street
Santa Cruz, California 95060

CITY COUNCIL AGENDA
Special Meeting – June 7, 2022
4:30 p.m. GENERAL BUSINESS, ZOOM
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City Council Special Meeting
4:30 P.M.

Call to Order
Roll Call
General Business

1. CORE Funding Recommendations (CM)
Motion to:
1) Approve Recommended Awards from the Collective of Results and Evidence-based (CORE) Investments Request for Proposals (RFP) process; and
2) Approve Agreement between City of Santa Cruz (City) and County of Santa Cruz (County) related to CORE funding and contract administration; and
3) Direct staff to return to the Council on June 28, 2022 with final CORE contract awards; and
4) Direct staff to return on or before February 28, 2023 with an update on the evaluation of the CORE RFP process and community stakeholder process; and
5) Authorize the City Manager to execute a contract, in a form approved by the City Attorney, with the County of Santa Cruz to administer the jointly-funded CORE contracts, reporting and funding distribution.

Adjournment
City Council

AGENDA REPORT
DATE: May 25, 2022
AGENDA OF: June 7, 2022
DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office
SUBJECT: CORE Funding Recommendations (CM)
RECOMMENDATION: Motion to:

1. Approve Recommended Awards from the Collective of Results and Evidence-based (CORE) Investments Request for Proposals (RFP) process; and

2. Approve Agreement between City of Santa Cruz (City) and County of Santa Cruz (County) related to CORE funding and contract administration; and

3. Direct staff to return to the Council on June 28, 2022 with final CORE contract awards; and

4. Direct staff to return on or before February 28, 2023 with an update on the evaluation of the CORE RFP process and community stakeholder process; and

5. Authorize the City Manager to execute a contract, in a form approved by the City Attorney, with the County of Santa Cruz to administer the jointly-funded CORE contracts, reporting and funding distribution.

BACKGROUND: In 2015, the City Council and County Board of Supervisors (Board) approved a phased-in approach to transition from the historical Community Programs funding model to a results-based collective impact model. After extensive research, and in collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders from multiple sectors, the funding process was transformed into a new model named the Collective of Results and Evidence-based (CORE) Investments.

From the beginning, there was an acknowledgment that the CORE Investments model would evolve over time. The evolution of the CORE program, including the development of this RFP, has been community informed, Board and City Council approved, and staff implemented. It also is one of the primary efforts that the City undertakes annually that implements the City’s Health in all Policies ordinance by funding programs and projects that directly improve community well-being. Achievement of improvement in community well-being is monitored through a set of indicators based on CORE principles and data sets, adopted by Council in November, 2021 and is reported on annually.

1.1 Community Informed:

Over the last five years, CORE Investments has moved beyond just a funding model to also become a movement to achieve equitable health and well-being in Santa Cruz County. This movement has been facilitated by the CORE Consultants, Nicole Young from Optimal Solutions Consulting and Nicole Lezin from Cole Communications, and has been driven by input, feedback, and ideas from multiple people representing nonprofits, public agencies, grassroots groups, funders, and community leaders. Engagement has continued by establishing the CORE steering committee and holding community forums, input sessions, and CORE Institute events, such as Coffee Chats and CORE Conversations.

Further, and in preparation for this RFP, the County’s Human Services Department (HSD) and the CORE consultants held multiple community stakeholder meetings both to keep stakeholders informed of the RFP development, and to gather input on how best to develop this RFP considering the changing needs of the community since the first RFP, including the impact of the Pandemic. Staff provided updates to the Board of Supervisors and City Council, keeping our elected bodies informed of these community engagement efforts and invited community stakeholders to make public comment as the details of the RFP were being developed.

Board of Supervisors and City Council approved:

The initial CORE contracts were approved by the Board of Supervisors and City Council for a three-year term. A one-year extension to align with the County new two-year budget cycle was also approved. Subsequently, and in response to the crisis created by the Pandemic, the Board and City Council approved a final one-year extension leading to the current RFP which will end the five-year term of current contracts.

During these past five years, the evolution and refinement of the CORE Investments model and framework has been documented and approved by Council via progress reports. These reports included summaries of the ongoing collaboration and communication with community partners.

Throughout, the City, HSD and our consultants worked closely to ensure collaboration and coordination between jurisdictions.

In preparation for this RFP, staff gave presentations to the elected bodies at meetings in February and September 2021, leading to the Board of Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council approval to release the current RFP on November 9, 2021. Further, in response to community service providers’ request considering the COVID Omicron surge, staff returned to Council on January 25, 2022, seeking approval to delay the application deadline by one month, which then required modification of timelines for appeal to ensure completion of the RFP process within the current Fiscal Year. A summary of major components of this RFP include:
 Three-year contract term
 Increases to the base funding, including folding in the Set Aside allocation, resulting in $4,799,000 in base County funding available for awards
 City funding of $1,080,000 added to the base
 Tiered funding approach- small, medium, and large awards, with an additional, larger Targeted Impact award
 Equity as central to CORE Investments as a process and desired impact  Grants of all sizes would be driven by community needs, as defined, and articulated by the applicants

1.2  Staff discretion to recommend awards up to no more than 10% variance from applicants proposed budget
 Hybrid Approach that is primarily broad, with no specific prioritization of a CORE Condition, population, region, nor agency; with two exceptions:
 $131,000 was to be carved out from the competitive RFP and instead dedicated as a contract with Seniors Council and administered by HSD’s Adults and Long-Term Care Division, as funding for the administrative local match requirement for the local Area Agency on Aging (AAA).
 No more than $595,000 was to be carved out of from the competitive RFP and dedicated to fund the grantee or grantees who receives senior nutrition funding from the AAA’s RFP process.

Staff administered:

HSD and City staff administered the RFP. To ensure the RFP was administered with integrity, transparency, and to create equity of opportunity for all applicants, significant time and resources were spent to communicate with and to support all potential applicants. As previously shared with City Council, technical assistance and training sessions were provided in partnership with the CORE consulting team, with 64 Training and Technical Assistance opportunities that saw over 298 participants.

Further, a scoring panel process described in greater detail below and attached, was developed which included recruitment of a robust, diverse, and predominantly local group of panelists. All panel members were provided with thorough and consistent training to ensure the scoring rubric was applied consistently.

DISCUSSION: A total of 128 applications representing 78 organizations were received across all four funding tiers, representing all CORE conditions, with a total of $15,179,382 worth of requests. Highlights of the applications are below, with further description of the applications included in “Summary of Proposals/Applicant Profile”.
 22 agencies submitted multiple applications, with 12 submitting 2, and 10 submitting 3 or more.
 47% of applicants were from new organizations, representing 42% of total applications.  While all CORE conditions were represented, the majority of the proposals were in the areas of Health and Wellness (36) and Stable, Affordable Housing & Shelter (23).  Along the continuum of evidence-based practices, most proposals, 67% utilized evidencebased programs, followed by 24% utilizing an effective practice.

Scoring Panel Approach
The HSD and City partnership strived to create diverse, representative panels in line with the goals of the RFP. The design of the recruitment efforts and panel process was informed by the community stakeholder activities before the RFP was published. Recruitment efforts targeted community partners, county departments, local cities, educators, regional partners and community groups, current and former community leaders and researchers from across the county and region. A process was established to ensure panel members did not have a conflict of interest with the applications they reviewed. “List of CORE RFP Panelists” includes a list of panelists who contributed their valuable time to this process.

Additional highlights of the Review Panels are below.

1.3  The review panel approach was guided by the RFP. Review panels were organized by funding tier and CORE Condition
 58 individuals participated as panelists
 Panelists were assigned to panels based on their connection to the CORE conditions of the proposals, and demographics striving for locally representative, diverse panels  76% of panelists stated lived experience within one of the CORE conditions  91% of panelists stated professional experience with one or more of the CORE conditions  86% of the panelists live in Santa Cruz County
 21% of the panelists were Latinx, with a total of 31% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color  All panelists completed a survey, and conflict of interest and confidentiality statements Panel Review and Scoring Process
A careful and deliberative review was followed to ensure that the process was carefully designed and executed in an objective, informed, and fair manner. “CORE Investments Proposal Review Process” includes a comprehensive summary of the CORE Investments proposal review process, and “Summary of Funding Recommendations” includes copies of the matrixes. Highlights of the process are below.
 A scoring rubric was developed for each tier, and proposals were scored based on the criteria of the tier for which the organization applied
 Training on the CORE RFP and scoring matrix was provided to all panelists  Nineteen review panels were created according to CORE Conditions  At least three panelists reviewed each application according to the scoring matrix  Panels were reconvened to discuss discrepancies in scores  A total of 34 reconvening meetings of 1-3 hours each were held across all panels for a total of approximately 63 hours-worth of discussion
 The average panelist score for each proposal was used to rank applications within each tier Funding Recommendations
This is the second iteration of CORE as an RFP. It was a very competitive process, and the applications represented a broad array of existing and new programs as expected based on community input. City of Santa Cruz and county staff agreed upon a simple funding formula, so that the city funding is evenly distributed across all tiers and all recommended awards that propose to serve city residents. County funding would be braided into all awards. “Summary of Funding Recommendations” provides an analysis of the proposals recommended for funding. “CORE Recommended Proposals Alphabetical by Agency” provides a list of the recommended proposals and recommended award amount. Highlights from the recommended awards are below.
 Funding recommendations are based on the score and rank of proposals within each tier and the dollar amounts available
 The mix of proposed awards is different from the current list of CORE recipients; however, the geographic distribution and populations served are comparable to what is currently funded
 The recommended awards across all CORE Conditions reflect the spread of proposals that were received across the CORE conditions, with largest proportions going to Health and Wellness (31%) and Thriving Families (32%)

1.4  The geographic distribution of recommended awards closely mirrors the geographic distribution of all proposals received, and the geographic distribution of current CORE funding
 The percentage of funding targeting seniors (20%) is comparable to the percentage of current CORE funding supporting seniors, and also reflects the county population of seniors under 200% of the Federal Poverty Level
 The distribution of recommended awards by race/ethnicity closely matches the distribution of people living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, with 50% of the funding going towards people who are Latinx
 Distribution of recommended awards across the tiers demonstrates progressively higher levels of evidence-based practices within the higher tiers of funding, with all levels of results and evidence-based practices on the Continuum of Results and Evidence being utilized by recommended awardees
Funding Adjustments
After the rating panels final rankings were provided to staff, the following staff adjustments were applied, in the order listed, leading to the recommended awards being presented today:
 There were fewer small tier applications received than total funding available. With acknowledgment of the intent to provide an opportunity for smaller proposals to be funded while also funding competitive proposals, staff recommend funding applications that scored 68 and above within the small tier. The next ranking application below 68 was over 10 points below the threshold.
 $272,581 remaining from the Small Tier was moved to the Medium and Large Tiers, given both tiers had much more requests for funding than money available. Further, the scores in the medium and large tiers were notably higher than in the small.  On September 28, 2021, the Board and Council approved redistribution of $75,000 of a current CORE contract as the program stopped operating, toward an additional $25,000 per year of this new three-year term. The $75,000 approved was moved to the Medium and Large Tiers.
 After funding all highest ranked proposals within Medium and Large Tiers, within approved budget for each tier, unspent funds of $448,185 were still available.  By applying a 3% reduction to each recommended award in the Medium, Large, and Targeted Impact grants, all available funds could be spent, leading to two additional Medium and two additional Large awards.

Carve out for Senior Meals
The Board of Supervisors and City Council directed staff to carve out “up to $595,000” from CORE funding to award to the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Senior Meals provider selected in their RFP. The $595,000 amount was based on information provided by staff to the Board and Council, which upon further review was not correct. Staff had reported that the current CORE award for Senior Meals provided by Community Bridges was $500,000 when in fact it is $415,000. The additional $95,000 was included in this analysis given a different Senior Meals program provided by Grey Bears and the prospect of a provider applying for and being awarded both programs by the AAA.

Based upon the AAA’s award to Community Bridges, staff are recommending accepting the Community Bridges application for Senior Meals in the large tier limit of $450,000. The 3%

1.5 reduction to all medium, Large, and Targeted Impact is being applied to this award, leading to the recommended Senior Meals award to Community Bridges of $436,500.

Agreement
The City of Santa Cruz is a formal partner, and funder in this process, and while City funds are to primarily serve City residents, with the framework of this RFP it is anticipated that county funding will also be braided into all contracts. To streamline the administrative process for the funders and vendors, HSD and the City of Santa Cruz have agreed that the County Human Services Department will administer the CORE Contracts. An agreement outlining the premises around CORE contract administration between the City and County is included in “County – City Agreement for CORE Contracts”.

Lessons Learned
As has been acknowledged throughout its development, CORE will continue to evolve over time. We are closing in on the second iteration of CORE as a funding framework, and as such it will be important to conduct an evaluation of this iteration in preparation for the next.

Similar to what was done following the last CORE RFP procurement, the HSD and City partnership is planning a comprehensive evaluation of this RFP process. The evaluation will include feedback and lessons learned on the community engagement leading up to the RFP, the RFP document and process itself, training and technical assistance, and the communication provided around the RFP, once complete, the scope of work and contracting process.

Opportunities for input on ideas for the next round will also be solicited. Feedback will be requested from stakeholders, panelists, staff, the Board and the City of Santa Cruz City Council.

Final Awards
Per the RFP, applicants have three (3) working days to appeal the recommendations, and final CORE funding decisions will be made on June 28, 2022. Following final funding decisions, staff will work with agencies to create scopes of work per mutual agreement of the vendor and funder.

Once approved by the Board and the City Council, staff will negotiate three-year contract agreements with recommended awardees.

FISCAL IMPACT:

CORE Investment awards are funded through the City’s General Fund. Award of funds for the next contracting cycle will be contingent upon the Council’s approval of these funds in the FY 2023 budget. The FY 2023 CORE Proposed Budget for the City is $1,080,000.

Prepared By:

Tiffany Wise-West
Sustainability and Climate
Action Manager
Submitted By:

Laura Schmidt
Assistant City Manager
Approved By:

Matt Huffaker
City Manager
ATTACHMENTS:
1) Summary of Proposals/Applicant Profile
2) List of CORE RFP Panelists
3) CORE Investments Proposal Review Process
4) Summary of Funding Recommendations
5) CORE Recommended Proposals Alphabetical by Agency
6) County – City Agreement for CORE Contracts

1.6 ATTACHMENT 1
Summary of Proposals/Applicant Profile
Table 1: Number of Proposals, Requested Funding, and Available Funding by Tier Small
(under $25k)

Medium
($25K-
$150k)

Large
($150k-
$450K)

Targeted
Impact

Total
#
Proposals
25 87 11 2 127
Requested
Funding*
$573,246 $9,265,331 $4,200,805

$1,590,000

$15,629,382
Available
Funding
$605,488 $3,083,705 $1,397,807 $795,000 $5,879,000
Table 1 depicts the total number of proposals and the amount of funding that was requested as compared to the amount available. The 127 proposals submitted totaled almost $16 million dollars, while the available funding was approximately $5.9 million. The medium and large tiers had requests that totaled more than three times the originally allocated amount.

Table 2. Distribution of Proposed Funding by CORE Condition Small
n=25
Mediu
m
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
Community
Connectedness 7% 3% 0% 0% 2%
Economic Security &
Mobility 13% 11% 12% 50% 16%
Health & Wellness 24% 31% 46% 0% 32%
Health Environments 0% 3% 0% 0% 2%
Lifelong Learning &
Education 18% 11% 7% 0% 9%
Safe & Just Community 4% 4% 0% 0% 3%
Stable, Affordable Housing
& Shelter 30% 20% 18% 0% 18%
Thriving Families 4% 16% 16% 50% 19%

1.7 Table 2 describes the distribution of the funding requests across the eight CORE Conditions by the four funding tiers. It must be noted that the CORE Conditions are related, yet for descriptive purposes applicants chose one primary condition.

Approximately one-third (32%) of the total funds requested targeted Health & Wellness, followed by Thriving Families (19%), Stable Affordable Housing & Shelter (18%), and Economic Security & Mobility (16%). There were some differences across the tiers. For the small tier, the largest amount of funding was requested for Stable and Affordable Housing & Shelter (30%) and a significant proportion was requested for Lifelong Learning and Education (18%). In the large tier almost half (46%) of funding request amount was primarily targeted to Health & Wellness. One of the proposals for the Targeted Impact Tier proposals requested funding to primarily target Economic Security & Mobility and the other was focused on Thriving Families.

Table 3. The Percentage of Proposals by the Highest Level of Continuum of Results and Evidence in a Program or Practice
Small
n=25
Medium
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
Evidence
Based
Program 44% 71% 82% 100% 67%
Effective
Practice 36% 24% 9% 0% 24%
Good Idea 12% 4% 9% 0% 6%
Emerging 8% 1% 0% 0% 2%
Table 3 shows how the applicants described the amount of evidence available to support their use of a particular program or practice. Within each proposal applicants may have proposed more than one program or practice. Table 3 describes the program or practice within each proposal that had the most evidence. For example, two-thirds (67%) of all proposals contained at least one program or practice that was classified as an “evidence-based program”. As expected, the proposals in Large and Targeted Impact tiers were more likely to use practices/programs with a higher level of evidence and the Small tier had more proposals where the programs/practices evidence level was “emerging” compared to the other tiers.

1.8 Table 4. Geographic Distribution of Proposed Funding Pop
U200%
FPL
Small
n=25
Medium
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
Santa Cruz
City 26% 40% 31% 26% 24% 29%
North Co (not
SC) 10% 11% 11% 10% 19% 12%
Mid Co 23% 14% 16% 18% 32% 18%
Wats/South
Co 42% 29% 39% 44% 25% 38%
Other area n/a 6% 3% 2% 0% 3%
Table 4 shows that funding requests were distributed across the whole county. The amount of funding requested in North County and the City of Santa Cruz was slightly larger (total of 41%) than Watsonville/South County (38%), as would be expected with one of the current CORE funders being the City of Santa Cruz. Additionally, the funding requests are largely in line with the population that lives below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Table 5. Distribution of Proposed Funding by Poverty Level County
Popula
tion
Small
n=25
Medium
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
Less than
100% FPL 12% 60% 55% 43% 16% 48%
100-200% FPL 15% 26% 31% 39% 52% 35%
Above 200%
FPL 73% 14% 14% 18% 33% 17%
Table 5 shows that the majority of the requested funds (83%) were proposed to serve people with incomes below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.

1.9 Table 6. Distribution of Proposed Funding by Race/Ethnicity Pop.
<200
FPL
Small
n=25
Medium
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
White 40% 39% 36% 39% 18% 35%
Black 1% 4% 3% 2% 12% 4%
Latino 51% 37% 51% 51% 45% 50%
Multiracial 3% 4% 4% 4% 13% 5%
AAPI 5% 4% 3% 2% 9% 3%
Other 0% 10% 1% 1% 2% 2%
NatAm/
AK 0% 2% 1% 1% 3% 1%
Table 6 displays the percent of funding requested to serve the community based on the race/ethnicity of the intended service population. In total, half (50%) of the funds were requested to serve people who are Latinx, 35% for White, and 4% for Black. The first column shows that the funding requests closely mirror the race/ethnicity of the population that has an income below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.

Table 7: Age Distribution of Proposed Funding
Pop.
<200
FPL
Small
n=25
Medium
n=89
Large
n=11
Targeted
Impact
n=2
Total
n=127
Children <6 7% 6% 7% 19% 20% 11%
Children 6-18 17% 32% 25% 11% 39% 23%
Adults <60 57% 39% 45% 52% 32% 45%
Srs 60+ 19% 23% 23% 18% 10% 21%
Table 7 shows that the total request for funds by age group was proportional to the percent of people within various age groups living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.

1.10 Attachment 2
List of CORE RFP Panelists
Name Panelist Type Affiliation
John Flaniken Community Member
Jerry Souza Community Member
Linda Wilshusen Community Member
Emily Balli Community Member
Gail Goudreau Community Member
Mary Thuerwachter Community Member
Nancy Kashap Community Member
Tobias Paige Community Member
Antonio R. Rivas Community Member
Anne Sawicki Community Member
Katarina Elizabeth
Czarniak
Philanthropy
Loren White Researcher National Association of Broadcasters Christine Megariotis Researcher University of California, Santa Cruz Rebecca Skinner Staff of Community Agency Cabrillo College Vicki Boriack Staff of Community Agency First 5 Santa Cruz County Priscila Bacio Staff of Community Agency Health Improvement Partnership of Santa Cruz County
Tony Gardner Staff of Community Agency Homeless Action Partnership Dana Bunnett Staff of Community Agency Kids in Common
Annalise Bryant City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Heidi Luckenbach City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Larry Imwalle City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Michael Lelieur City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Morgan Bostic City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Robert Oatey City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Tiffany Lake City Employee City of Santa Cruz
Adriana Flores City Employee City of Watsonville
Raunel Zavala City Employee City of Watsonville
Amy Peeler County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Andrea Solano County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Anthony Jordan County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency David Davis County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Joel Ginsberg County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Karen Kern County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Lisa Gutierrez Wang County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Najeeb Kamil County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency

1.11 Shelly Barker County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency Alicia Morales County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Bridget Semlek County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Carol Crisman County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Dean Kaufman County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Gricelda Vazquez County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Irma Marquez County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Jessica Cirksena County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Jessica Scheiner County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Julia Sheehan County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Karina Aragon County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Katy Chevalier County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Monica Lippi County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Olga Zuniga County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Robin Luckett County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Human Services Dept.

Sarah Shea County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Parks Dept.

Sara Jamison County Employee County of Santa Cruz, Probation Dept.

Kat Woolbright County Employee Alameda County
Sun Hyung Lee County Employee Alameda County
Jessica Regala Paran County Employee Marin County
David Dobrowski County Employee Monterey County Office of Education Matt Green County Employee Solano County Health & Social Services Dept.

Oscar Chavez County Employee Sonoma County, Human Services Department

1.12 Attachment 3

CORE INVESTMENTS PROPOSAL REVIEW PROCESS
The diagram below represents the deliberative CORE Investments proposal review method that involved a transparent process with a large variety of stakeholders. This process is described in detail below.

Amendment to Extend RFP Submission Date
The county received multiple requests from community providers to delay the Collective of Results and Evidence (CORE) Request for Proposal application deadline, given the impact of the COVID surge in the county during the time applicants had to prepare proposals. On January 25, 2022, the County Board of Supervisors approved the extension of the application deadline to March 4th, 2022 (4 weeks after the original deadline). This deadline extension prompted an adjustment to other CORE RFP timelines.

Proposal Submission
Proposals were submitted electronically via Reviewr, a web-based platform specifically designed to collect, manage, and review online proposal submissions. After the proposal due date, HSD staff reviewed proposals for completeness and application parameters of the RFP.

Identification of Objective Review Panel
Panelists were recruited to include people with subject matter expertise in one or more of the CORE conditions and who were free of conflicts of interest to provide a fair and objective

1.13 review of all submitted proposals. Panelists were recruited through general and targeted email, and recruitment efforts targeted community partners, county departments, local cities, educators, regional partners and community groups, current and former community leaders and researchers from across the county and region. The recruitment email provided background on the CORE RFP and a link to a brief panelist application questionnaire. The email encouraged recipients to consider serving as a panelist and to share the invitation with other potential panelists. See appendix for email.

HSD reviewed all applications from potential panelists. All were screened for conflict of interest, which was defined as the potential panelist or an immediate family member had been an employee, volunteer, contractor, board member, or participant (consumer) of services from a CORE RFP applicant within the past two years.

Selection of panelists was based on alignment of expertise to the CORE conditions of submitted proposals as well as diversity with respect to race/ethnicity, gender, age, lived experience, professional experience, geographic area of expertise, and whether the applicants lived in Santa Cruz or another county. The goal of this review was to select a local panelist pool of subject matter experts who reflected the diversity of Santa Cruz county as much as possible.

Ultimately, 58 people served as panelists. They included people with lived experience, community members, staff from community-based organizations, researchers, City and County government staff.

Assignment of Proposals to Panelists
Once all proposals were received and screened for completion, HSD staff grouped them by tier and by the primary CORE condition selected by applicant. Given available numbers of qualified panelists without conflict of interest, HSD determined that proposals for Small, Medium, and Large Tiers would be reviewed by three panelists, while Targeted Impact proposals would be reviewed by four panelists.

Drawing on information captured via the panelist questionnaire, HSD assigned proposals to panelists based on the alignment of panelists’ expertise with proposals’ primary CORE condition(s). When possible, HSD assigned at least one panelist with geographic expertise to review proposals targeting particular areas of the County (e.g., South County, San Lorenzo Valley, etc.). Finally, HSD sought to ensure diversity of panelists across tiers and within grouped proposals. This step was designed so each proposal was reviewed by panelists who represented some diversity with respect to demographics, lived and professional experience.

All panelists signed Conflict of Interest forms and Confidentiality Agreements before receiving the proposals for review.

Panelist Training
Panelists participated in a 2-hour training. The training provided background on CORE, the CORE RFP and application, the scoring process, the Reviewr scoring platform, and a tier-specific mock proposal developed to aid panelists in understanding the application and scoring process.

Panelists were also able to ask questions by email throughout the proposal review process.

1.14 Proposal Scoring: Independent Scoring and Variance Discussions After being provided training and signing conflict of interest and confidentiality agreements, panelists independently scored each assigned proposal using a tier-specific scoring matrix.

Matrices were based on the RFP scoring criteria, application questions, and application instructions. They were designed to provide guidance to panelists, ground scoring in the RFP and application, minimize bias, and create greater consistency in scoring. In addition to numeric scores, panelists provided qualitative comments for each proposal that identified areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. For Large Tier and Targeted Impact proposals, which required applicants to submit financial statements, the County Auditor reviewed and scored these documents. The auditor score was added into the Large Tier and Targeted Impact overall score.

After panelists completed their independent review of proposals, HSD staff analyzed scores to identify any large variations between panelists scoring the same proposal, using a standard threshold to define variance for consistency. When variant scores were identified, all panelists scoring that proposal were invited to attend a virtual discussion about the specific variant scores. Discussions allowed panelists to share their rationale for scoring, learn from one another, and to adjust scores if they wished.

In total, 33 variance meetings were convened and facilitated by HSD staff and an external consultant, hired for her expertise in public system procurement processes. All meetings followed the same format. Panelists were provided a brief orientation to the process, which described the purpose of the meeting, ground rules for discussion and confidentiality, and assurance that after discussion panelists could choose to adjust scores or leave them as is.

Panelists then discussed each identified scoring variance sequentially. Discussion was guided by slides presenting quantitative scores, associated qualitative comments, and relevant scoring matrix.

Final Score Review and Funding Recommendations
After panelists finalized their scoring, the applications were ranked and staff analyzed the scores by tier with available funding. Recommended awards were determined using the average panelist scores, requested funding, and the amount of money allocated to each tier.

1.15 APPENDIX A: Panelist Recruitment Announcement
CORE Investment Review Panel Recruitment Announcement
Are you willing to help the County of Santa Cruz (County) and the City of Santa Cruz (City) review and score proposals for the Collective of Results and Evidence-based (CORE) Investments? Please share this announcement with others who may be interested in this opportunity.

CORE Investments is a collective impact funding model and movement to achieve equitable health and well-being in Santa Cruz County.

The County and the City will be awarding nearly $6 million dollars per year for three years to programs that focus on improving the well-being of community members experiencing the greatest challenges and barriers in the County. More information about the CORE Request for Proposals can be found here and information about CORE Investments as a movement can be found here.

Who are we looking for?
 Individuals who are willing to commit to a total of approximately 10-20 hours over the course of 6 weeks to read and score proposals and participate in a virtual review panel from March to early May 2022.
 Individuals who represent the diversity of our community.  People and/or their family members who have not been an employee, volunteer, contractor, board member, or received services from any agency applying for CORE funding within the last 2 years.

Have concerns around participating? Accommodations are available to create a space where otherwise eligible individuals can participate regardless of physical or financial barriers.

Next Steps
If you are interested in participating as a reviewer, please complete a brief 10-minute questionnaire here as soon as possible or by 2/11/22. If you know someone who may be interested in participating, please forward them this invitation. Once the proposals are submitted, we will reach out to all potential reviewers with more information and any follow up questions.

If you have additional questions, please contact [email protected] and include a phone number where we can reach you during normal business hours.

1.16 ATTACHMENT 4
Summary of Funding Recommendations
This CORE RFP was community informed, with applicants defining and articulating community needs. Following the scoring and review process as described in other attachments, the recommended distribution of funding closely reflects the distribution of proposed funding, as well as the geographic, race/ethnicity and age ranges of the county population.

Table 1. Summary of RFP Allocation and Recommended Allocation Small Medium Large Targeted Impact Total
Allocation in RFP $605,488 $3,083,705 $1,397,807 $795,000 $5,879,000 Recommended Funding
Allocation*
$332,907 $3,138,982 $1,661,921 $770,089 $5,903,900
Total Proposals Awarded 15 of 25 32 of 89 5 of 11 1 of 2 53 of 127 *Recommended funding includes $24,900 from previous CORE budget that was carried over into new cycle.

Table 1 compares the estimated allocation listed in the RFP to the recommended allocation.

These recommendations are based on the following principles:
 Fund proposals as close to the amount requested as possible  Fund high scoring proposals, in rank order
 Allocate unawarded money from Small Tier to Medium and Large Tier to fund additional proposals
 Expend all appropriated funds to provide as much service to the community as possible Table 2. Summary of Proposals and Recommended Funding Scores Tier Total
Proposals
Funded
Proposals
Highest Score Average Score Minimum
Funded Score
Small 25 15 93 64 68
Medium 89 32 98 73 84
Large 11 5 90 82 88
Targeted Impact 2 1 81 70 81
All Proposals 127 53 98 72 n/a
Due to the fact that requested funding was 2.5 times the available funding, there were many highly rated proposals that unfortunately could not be recommended for funding. Table 2 shows the range of scores, the average score, and the lowest score that is recommended based on the available funds and the principles listed above.

1.17 Table 3. Distribution of Recommended Funding by CORE Condition Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted
Impact
n=1
Total
n=53
Community Connectedness 12% 4% 0% 0% 3%
Economic Security &
Mobility 8% 8% 26% 0% 12%
Health & Wellness 34% 39% 27% 0% 31%
Health Environments 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Lifelong Learning &
Education 17% 11% 0% 0% 7%
Safe & Just Community 8% 4% 0% 0% 3%
Stable, Affordable Housing &
Shelter 15% 12% 20% 0% 13%
Thriving Families 8% 22% 26% 100% 32%
Table 3 describes the distribution of recommended funding across the eight CORE Conditions by the four funding tiers. The recommended funding falls within seven of the eight CORE Conditions, with 31% to Health & Wellness and 32% to Thriving Families.

Table 4: Recommended funding by CORE condition compared to proposed funding Total
Proposed
n=127
Recommended
N=53
Community Connectedness 2% 3%
Economic Security & Mobility 16% 12%
Health & Wellness 32% 31%
Health Environments 2% 0%
Lifelong Learning & Education 9% 7%
Safe & Just Community 3% 3%
Stable, Affordable Housing & Shelter 18% 13%
Thriving Families 19% 32%
The distribution of recommended funding closely represents the distribution of proposed funding by CORE Condition based on the proposed applications.

1.18 Table 5. The Percentage of Recommended Proposals by the Highest Level of Continuum of Results and Evidence in a Program or Practice Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted Impact
n=1
Evidence Based
Program 47% 69% 80% 100%
Effective Practice 40% 31% 0% 0%
Good Idea 7% 0% 20% 0%
Emerging 7% 0% 0% 0%
Part of CORE is results and evidence-based investments, with recognition the rigor and data available supporting various practices is part of a continuum. Table 5 shows how the recommended proposals fall within the CORE Continuum of Results & Evidence. Almost twothirds (64%) of all proposals recommended for funding contained at least one program or practice that was classified as an “evidence-based program”.

Table 6. Geographic Distribution of Recommended Funding Pop
U200% FPL
Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted
Impact
n=1
Total
n=53
Santa Cruz City 26% 40% 32% 24% 33% 30%
North Co (not SC) 10% 8% 10% 7% 33% 12%
Mid Co 23% 17% 16% 15% 33% 18%
Wats/South Co 42% 33% 37% 52% 0% 36%
Other area n/a 2% 5% 2% 0% 3%
Table 6 shows that the recommended distribution of funding will serve all parts of the county, with Santa Cruz/North County receiving a slightly larger share than Watsonville/South County.

This is as expected given the City of Santa Cruz is one of the CORE funders. Additionally, the funding mirrors the % of the population living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).

For the purposes of the CORE analysis, 200% FPL is utilized because it more accurately reflects the population with greatest need.

1.19 Table 7. Distribution of Recommended Funding by Poverty Level County
Population
Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted
Impact
n=1
Total
n=53
Less than 100%
FPL 12% 64% 51% 58% 25% 50%
100-200% FPL 15% 24% 34% 27% 50% 34%
Above 200% FPL 73% 12% 15% 15% 25% 16%
Table 7 shows that the majority of the recommended funds (84%) will serve people with incomes below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, with half serving people at very low income (below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level).

Table 8. Distribution of Recommended Funding by Race/Ethnicity Pop. <200
FPL
Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted
Impact
n=1
Total
n=53
White 40% 36% 36% 39% 31% 36%
Black 1% 5% 2% 1% 3% 2%
Latino 51% 48% 53% 44% 50% 50%
Multiracial 3% 5% 5% 10% 10% 7%
AAPI 5% 1% 1% 3% 1% 3%
Other 0% 3% 1% 2% 6% 1%
NatAm/AK 0% 2% 1% 1% 0% 1%
Table 8 shows that funding the proposals as recommended will closely match the distribution of people living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level within the various racial/ethnic categories. For example, half(50%) of the funds would be used to serve people who are Latinx and half of the people living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in the county are Latinx.

Table 9. Age Distribution of Recommended Funding
Pop. <200
FPL
Small
n=15
Medium
n=32
Large
n=5
Targeted
Impact
n=1
Total
n=53
Children <6 7% 3% 6% 17% 20% 11%
Children 6-
18 17% 36% 24% 16% 50% 26%
Adults <60 57% 45% 50% 35% 30% 43%
Seniors 60+ 19% 16% 20% 32% 0% 20%
Table 9 shows that the recommended funding will spread funds to people across the age range. Seniors comprise approximately 19% of people below 200% FPL and 20% of the people served in the recommended programs will be 60 or older. Children will be somewhat

1.20 over represented in the distribution of funds (24% of the population below 200% FPL and 37% of those served by the recommended programs).

Comparative Analysis of Current CORE Funding to Recommended Funding Below is an analysis of the changes in recommended funding from the previous CORE Investments cycle. Tables 10 - 12 gives some detailed analysis. Notably, the overall data demonstrates that the recommended awards are comparable to current funding distribution as it relates to geography and demographics.

Table 10. Overview of Proposed Funding Patterns for New and Existing CORE Funded Agencies
# of
Agencies
Total
Amount of
Gain/Loss
Avg
Gain/Loss
Avg Gain/Loss
as a % of
Agencies
Overall Budgets
Range of
Gain or Loss*
New Community
Agencies Funded
20 $2,213,254 $110,663 18% $2,668 to
$751,750
Existing CORE Funded
Agencies Who Will Gain
Funding from FY 21-22
16 $824,369 $51,523 2% $6,440 to
$308,030
Existing CORE Funded
Agencies Who Will Lose
Funding from FY 21-22
24 -$2,219,041 -$92,460 -4% -$6,650 to -
$816,500
*Includes agencies applying as part of collaborative proposals that receive partial funds from the overall proposal.

Table 10 displays the number of agencies that will gain and lose funding from the previous CORE Investments cycle, as well as the amount of those changes. This RFP process yielded a recommendation to fund 20 “new” community agencies, that is agencies that were not funded by CORE Investments in the previous cycle for a total of approximately $2.2 million.

Also, 16 agencies that were previous CORE Investments recipients will gain over $800,000 in total or $51,000 on average. Unfortunately, due to the open and competitive process, the recommendations include a loss from prior CORE funding for 24 previously funded agencies, totaling approximately $2.2 million with an average loss of 4% of their agency budgets.

1.21 Table 11. Geographic Distribution of Recommended Funding Pop U200% FPL CORE Funded FY 2021-22 Recommended
Santa Cruz City 26% 29% 30%
North Co (not SC) 10% 13% 12%
Mid Co 23% 17% 18%
Wats/South Co 42% 39% 36%
Other area n/a 3% 3%
While the previous table (Table 10) indicates that there will be significant change to many agencies that were previously funded and newly funded by CORE Investments, however Table 11 shows that the distribution of funds to the various parts of the county will be remarkably similar to the awards from the last CORE Investments cycle.

Table 12. Race/Ethnicity Distribution of Recommended Funding Pop. <200 FPL CORE Funded FY 2021-22 Recommended
White 40% 38% 36%
Black 1% 2% 2%
Latino 51% 43% 50%
Multiracial 3% n/a 7%
AAPI 5% 2% 3%
Other 0% 14% 1%
NatAm/AK 0% n/a 1%
Table 12 shows that most racial/ethnic groups will have similar funding to the last CORE funding cycle, but that the Latinx population will have an increase in funding for programs serving them which more closely mirrors the population living in poverty.

1.22 1
Attachment 5
CORE Recommended Proposals Alphabetical by Agency
Targeted Impact Tier
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total
Recommended
Budget
City of Santa
Cruz
Contribution
Toward Total
United Way of
Santa Cruz County Cradle to Career
Cradle to Career Santa Cruz County will leverage individual and policy level strategies to center the lives of children, families, and youth that have been historically marginalized by racist systems and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. C2C will lead equity-driven assessments at schools, strengthen family leadership, and leverage partnerships to support thriving families. $ 770,089.00 $ 159,670.24
Large Tier
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total
Recommended
Budget
City of Santa
Cruz
Contribution
Toward Total
Community Action
Board of Santa
Cruz County, Inc.

1.23 2
Community
Bridges
Meals on Wheels
for Santa Cruz
County (MOW)
Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County, a program of Community Bridges, will provide meals to older adults 60 + following Dietary Guidelines for Americans providing a minimum one-third of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI’s). The meals are available at our four congregate dining sites and through our home delivered meal program, also known as Older Americans Act Title III-C-1 and C-2 respectively.
$ 436,221.72 $ 90,446.20
Dientes
Community
Dental Care
Dientes
Community Dental
Care
As the largest local oral health care provider and a critical part of the health care safety net, Dientes provides preventative dental care and affordable treatment for thousands living in poverty. We work to ensure that cost, insurance, income, language, and transportation don't prevent people from visiting the dentist. We respectfully request support to improve equitable access to care. $ 208,998.67 $ 43,333.78
Santa Cruz
Community
Ventures
Semillitas
Ventures will expand its countywide Semillitas College Savings Account program that includes equity-boosting Milestone Contribution opportunities. This family-centered program encourages ongoing positive behaviors, high expectations, and increased participation in activities focused on early childhood development, health, education, and financial capability. $ 436,221.72 $ 90,446.20
Second Harvest
Food Bank Santa
Cruz County
Second Harvest
Food Bank Santa
Cruz County
Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County will distribute at least ten millions pounds of food as needed by the community, improve the capacity of our non profit partners to provide more food while up-leveling their ability to use data to improve their food pantries, and provide nutrition education workshops and cooking clubs to encourage diet changes that improve life-long health outcomes.
$ 241,680.40 $ 50,110.01

1.24 3
Medium Tier
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total
Recommended
Budget
City of Santa Cruz
Contribution
Toward Total
Arts Council
Santa Cruz
County
Mariposa Arts
Arts Council Santa Cruz County seeks funds to deepen its Mariposa Arts TEACH program in Watsonville schools by doubling the paid time for high school student teachers to meet with teaching artist mentors. Weekly mentorship will help them hone their teaching and leadership skills to provide service to 4,000+ youth and expand time to refine their art skill and create a community service art project.
$ 38,786.89 $0
Association
of Faith
Communities
of Santa Cruz
County
Safe Spaces
The Association of Faith Communities is seeking to expand its case management staff for our Safe Spaces program, which serves as the largest safe parking program in the county. Individuals sleeping in their vehicles face numerous inequities. Increasing case management staff would give program participant's increased capacity and resources to move toward permanent housing. $ 112,637.13 $0
Boys & Girls
Clubs of
Santa Cruz
County
Boys & Girls Clubs
of Santa Cruz
County
Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County will deliver Project Learn, an evidence-based practice that strives to improve students’ educational outcomes by increasing their interest in learning, enhancing their academic abilities, and improving their school grades. We will serve an estimated 1,300-1,550 youth ages 6-18 each year, via afterschool, summer, and holiday programs at our three Clubhouses.
$ 101,815.59 $ 21,110.44
Coastal
Watershed
Council
Watershed Rangers
CWC’s Watershed Rangers program provides critical, high-quality learning opportunities for 500 K-5th grade youth in the Santa Cruz City Schools Elementary District to reverse learning lag resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and improve social emotional development for our youngest, Latinx and English language learners who are most in need of support.
$ 67,877.06 $ 14,073.63

1.25 4
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

Alcance -
Links2Work and
Day Worker Center
CAB’s Alcance Program will address the need for critical employment support and services to two hard to serve groups and their families, those who have been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs and local day workers. Services include intensive, motivational case management, job training and placement tailored to the individuals.
$ 96,967.23 $ 20,105.18
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

CAB - Davenport
Resource Service
Center
CAB’s Davenport Resource Service Center, the only service provider for the isolated North Coast, will use CORE funds for on-going, weekly food distributions to 150 low-income households/month; to provide 45 farmworker families with enhanced access to food and case management; operate the North Coast Teen Center,
Homework Club, and Summer Recreation/Lunch; and to provide case management to seniors.
$ 77,573.78 $ 16,084.15
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

CAB - Rental
Assistance Program
CAB’s Rental Assistance Program (RAP) proposes to provide critical eviction prevention rent assistance and case management services to prevent homelessness for very low-income North/Mid-County and City of Santa Cruz residents and households with children, disabled and senior members. Services will include individualized housing plans, budgeting/financial literacy support and referral linkages.
$ 121,209.03 $ 25,131.48
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

Santa Cruz County
Immigration
Project/Thriving
Immigrants
Initiative
The Community Action Board envisions a Santa Cruz County where immigrant families THRIVE. CAB’s Immigration Department will use CORE funds to launch a legal services office in the City of Santa Cruz; expand free, state subsidized DACA and citizenship services countywide; and organize monthly educational workshops to promote the benefits of US citizenship.
$ 144,481.17 $ 29,956.72
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

1.26 5
Eat for the
Earth Community Rx
Most people in our county will spend their later years sick and will die from diet-related fatal conditions—heart disease, diabetes, and others. The food on our forks affects all groups, but some groups more than others. Community Rx uses diet, education, and targeted universalism to address racial inequities—focusing on the needs of the particular and lifting the health of our entire community. $ 94,813.59 $ 19,658.65
Encompass
Community
Services
Health Equity for All
The “Health Equity for All” proposal seeks to improve health equity and lifespans of persons served in our residential treatment service lines. A majority of premature deaths of people who struggle with severe mental illness and substance disorders due to physical medical conditions are preventable. Physical activity, healthy eating habits, and community support can have protective effects. $ 144,822.61 $ 30,027.52
Encompass
Community
Services
V.O.I.C.E. (Valuing
Our Individual
Client Experiences)
To support equitable access to culturally responsive and effective behavioral health services, we propose integration of 3 best practices across Encompass behavioral health services. These strategies are design to uplift clients’ voices throughout treatment and strengthen providers’ ability to deliver quality services. $ 140,838.11 $ 29,201.37
FoodWhat,
Inc Food What?!
FoodWhat (FW) is a youth empowerment and food justice
organization. We provide meaningful space where youth define and cultivate their empowerment, liberation and well-being by developing relationships with land, food, and each other. As a FW Crew, we grow, cook, eat and distribute fresh, healthy food while also addressing local food justice issues.
$ 34,011.26 $ 7,051.89
Grey Bears Healthy Food
Program
Grey Bears Healthy Food program ensures that Santa Cruz County aging adults – including isolated and disabled seniors – have access to nutritious food, food security, opportunities to volunteer and engage socially, remain active and in their own homes, and live healthy, meaningful lives.
$ 131,937.49 $ 27,355.92

1.27 6
Harm
Reduction
Coalition of
Santa Cruz
County
Harm Reduction
Coalition of Santa
Cruz County
The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County will use requested funds to sustain two key staff positions in need of permanent funding, perform a rigorous evaluation of our Syringe Services Program to measure our fidelity to the evidence-based model and make improvements, and to expand our existing countywide collaborations to improve the entire continuum of care for People Who Use Drugs.
$ 144,481.17 $ 29,956.72
Housing
Matters
Community
Conversations on
Homelessness
Housing Matters’ Community Conversations on Homelessness program will provide individuals with lived experience of homelessness opportunities to speak in public forums, along with an online storytelling platform. Through various media, they will educate the general public about the experience of homelessness and related issues to reduce stigma and encourage a
compassionate community response.
$ 114,852.84 $0
Jacob’s Heart
Children’s
Cancer
Support
Services
Comprehensive
Grief Support
Services for Low
Income Families of
Children with
Cancer
Jacob’s Heart will improve access to bicultural support services for low-income disenfranchised families suffering anticipatory grief or the traumatic loss of a precious child through the expansion of our Grief Support Program - including scaling up peer mentorship, individual psychotherapy and support groups and access to support groups, outings for bereaved siblings, and Forever Loved Camp. $ 96,967.23 $ 20,105.18
Live Earth
Farm
Discovery
Program
Live Earth Farm
Discovery Program
Improve personal, community and food system health through nutrition and farming education and food access partnerships that improve nutrition security. During active, on-farm programs students, chaperones, campers and families are empowered to be active and choose and access nutritious fresh, fruits and vegetables. $ 96,967.23 $ 20,105.18
Monarch
Services -
Servicios
Monarca
Positive Solutions
Program
This program focuses on providing tools to stop abusive behavior, developing an appreciation of emotions and changing the attitudes that have
contributed to abusive behavior.
$ 110,867.48 $ 22,987.26
Monarch
Services -
Servicios
Monarca
Therapeutic
Services Program
Individual therapeutic services for adult and youth survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. $ 145,378.12 $ 30,142.70

1.28 7
NAMI Santa
Cruz County
Free Mental Health
Services in Spanish
NAMISCC seeks funding to sustain and expand our free mental health services in Spanish. Services include support groups, classes, a Help Line, and mental health presentations in schools, all of which are led by trained bilingual facilitators with the lived experience of mental illness.Those served are Latinx people urgently needing help to deal with their own mental illness or that of a loved one. $ 93,088.54 $ 19,300.98
New Life
Community
Services, Inc
New Life
Community Services
- Self-Pay program
New Life Community Services ("NLCS") provides residential substance use disorder treatment and reentry services to individuals and families. We seek funding to continue offering our self-pay program, which serves clients who have no insurance or existing resources to pay for treatment. Without additional funding, the agency will need to decrease spaces available in the self-pay program.
$ 53,331.98 $ 11,057.85
Pajaro Valley
Prevention
and Student
Assistance
Familias UnidasUnited Families
The familias Unidas project aims to to promote resilience, reduce isolation, rebuild family cohesion and connectedness. Our case management team will conduct needs assessments, link families to resources, engage all families in an eight week evidence based family centered program, and provide pro-social opportunites for the youth/children that take part of this family system. $ 145,251.09 $0
Santa Cruz
City Schools
Computer Science
for All
Santa Cruz City Schools’ Computer Science for All Program aims to address existing disparities in computer science education through teacher training and parent engagement. These strategies are designed to give all of our elementary students, especially female and Latinx students, access to high quality curriculum and the opportunity to see themselves as computer scientists.
$ 100,347.51 $ 20,806.05
Santa Cruz
Community
Health
Centers
Integrated
Behavioral Health
HealthySteps is an evidence-based program, that ensures all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. HealthySteps transforms pediatric care through a unique team-based approach that integrates a HealthySteps Specialist/child development expert, into the health care team. All families from prenatal to age 5 and their families will receive a tiered model of services, from universal screening
$ 144,481.17 $ 29,956.72

1.29 8
Senior
Citizens' Legal
Service (SCLS)
Increased Service
Capacity SCLS 2022
SCLS is the sole provider in our County of free legal services to seniors, working on a lean budget since 1972. We've grown to meet the increased demand for services due to isolation & risk of homelessness seniors faced during the pandemic & fraud, discrimination, & elder abuse. This grant will support our strategic plan for an additional attorney & staff increasing the number of seniors served.
$ 77,573.78 $ 16,084.15
Senior
Network
Services, Inc.

Santa Cruz County
Aging & Disability
Resource
Connection (ADRC)
Capacity Building
Project
To build a first-class Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) for the residents of Santa Cruz County. To design the ADRC to incorporate the maximum number of partners and programs and to positively impact the lives of seniors, people with disabilities and care providers. In short, to take a major step in making Santa Cruz County a 21st century age and able friendly community.
$ 50,907.80 $ 10,555.22
Teen Kitchen
Project
Home-delivered
Medically Tailored
Meals for
Vulnerable
Populations
Teen Kitchen Project provides critically and chronically ill people in Santa Cruz County with home-delivered, medically-tailored free or low cost meals. Meals are prepared by teen chefs who benefit from the opportunity to give back to their community while learning valuable workforce and life skills. Medically tailored meals have been proven to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.
$ 145,450.85 $ 30,157.77
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Restorative Justice
Programs
Our criminal justice system is inequitable and has outcomes that are literally the worst in the world! Our Restorative Justice Programs intervene with proven, practical supports and coaching during the first 6 months after release from incarceration to help people re-enter our community more successfully, creating a path away from justice system involvement and towards shared healing and safety.
$ 45,089.76 $ 9,348.91
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Volunteer Center of
Santa Cruz County
Empowered Aging
Programs
We increase the health, safety and well being of seniors, and build a more vibrant community. Our Empowered Aging programs are county wide, with opportunities for seniors to help others through meaningful volunteering and receive help from volunteers, creating a more equitable community. We offer a suite of free home and community based services in English and Spanish to 500-600 elders. $ 43,635.25 $ 9,047.33

1.30 9
Walnut
Avenue
Family &
Women's
Center
Walnut Avenue
Early Education
Center
Walnut Avenue Early Education Center is increasing equity in health & well-being through affordable, high-quality bilingual early education, which sets all children up for success by maximizing school readiness; by allowing working or school-bound parents to trust in full-day excellent care of their child; and by providing employment in a healing organization which values empowerment and equity.
$ 48,483.62 $ 10,052.59
Walnut
Avenue
Family &
Women's
Center
Youth Prevention
Program
Walnut Avenue's Youth Prevention Program utilizes evidence-based curricula and a Positive Youth Development framework to increase resilience among families and empower youth. Our programs use a gender-inclusive, anti-racist, strengths based, and healing centered perspective to support participants to overcome the impact of ACE's, strenghten family bonds and increase safety for the community.
$ 29,090.17 $ 6,031.55

1.31 10
Small Tier
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total
Recommended
Budget
City of Santa
Cruz
Contribution
Toward Total
Acupuncturists
Without
Borders
AWB CARE Project
The AWB CARE Project seeks to reduce health care inequity; reduce chronic illness, pain, stress, and trauma; and support physical and emotional resilience in the Santa Cruz County farmworker community. We will do this by offering free, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, integrative health care services at “pop-up” mobile clinics in the Watsonville, CA area.
$ 24,374.00 $0
Encompass
Community
Services
Health & Housing
The project provides a seamless and supportive transition into housing for individuals early in their recovery as they prepare to step down from residential treatment. This project supports individuals in their efforts to obtain affordable, transitional housing with support for sobriety, as they take their next step in their recovery journey and move towards stability and independent living.
$ 24,474.00 $ 5,074.44
Girls Inc. of the
Central Coast College Bound
We will offer three programs to girls ages 13-18, facilitated by peers, using strategies inspiring them to create a future that includes healthy relationships, educational attainment and economic independence.

We assist them in planning for high school and college, identifying and defending personal values, developing leadership skills, overcoming systemic barriers and achieving lifelong wellness. $ 22,500.00 $0
Girls Inc. of the
Central Coast
Health and
Wellness
We will offer two programs to girls ages 9-13, facilitated by peers, that inspire them to set health and wellness goals that include developing healthy relationships, practicing assertive communication skills, avoiding unhealthy behaviors, managing stress, handling conflict, gaining knowledge of reproductive health, and overcoming systemic barriers that prevent them from achieving their goals. $ 10,500.00 $0

1.32 11
Homeless
Garden Project
Transitional
Employment for
Individuals
Experiencing
Homelessness
HGP’s yearlong transitional employment program provides wages, job training and support services to people experiencing homelessness.

Trainees earn income, build job readiness skills and work to overcome obstacles to self-sufficiency in a supportive environment, while growing organic, local food for the community.
$ 25,000.00 $ 5,183.50
Nourishing
Generations
Educational
Project
Nutrition, Culinary,
Fitness Education
Nutrition education, hands-on cooking, and fitness program for 3rd5th graders in the after-school program at all three Live Oak School District elementary schools - Del Mar, Live Oak, and Green Acres. This program provides each school with six weekly 2-hour long classes for students, and four 1-hour long nutrition and cooking demonstration for parents at each school site.
$ 22,000.00 $ 4,561.48
Salud y Cariño Harbor High School
Girls Group
Salud y Cariño will expand its FREE weekly after school Girls Group program to Harbor High School in order to continue providing proactive opportunities for young women to build their confidence, resilience, and knowledge of positive health and wellness behaviors.

Built on relational-cultural theory, the groups are driven by the girls’ voices and led by bicultural women from the community.
$ 19,524.00 $ 4,048.11
Senderos Las Artes Culturales
de Senderos
Senderos provides equitable access to cultural arts activities, educational pathways, and community resources for Latinx youth and families. Las Artes Culturales de Senderos will offer free folkloric dance and traditional music programs, share indigenous traditions through festivals and performances, strengthen families and community belonging, and inclusively celebrate diversity. $ 22,550.00 $ 4,675.52
Seniors
Council of
Santa Cruz and
San Benito
Counties
Foster Grandparent
Program
The Foster Grandparent Program is a proven intergenerational program impacting two groups facing inequities: children who are economically disadvantaged and/or have special needs; and lowincome seniors. Our seniors volunteer in pre-school - 3rd grade classrooms 15-30 hours per week, providing one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, and emotional support. CORE funding is needed for postCOVID recruitment. $ 23,000.00 $ 4,768.82

1.33 12
Sweaty Sheep:

Presbytery of
San Jose
Worries to the
Wind
Santa Cruz is a diverse community & home to an equally diverse network of agencies, each working as one to address social inequity.

In recognition of the role of collaboration in the health of our community, our proposal promotes the power of play as a means of community connectivity by offering free sailing & art programs to individuals experiencing inequity and the diverse agencies serving them.
$ 16,500.00 $ 3,421.11
Vista Center
for the Blind
and Visually
Impaired
Vision Loss
Rehabilitation
Program
Vista Center's Vision Loss Rehabilitation Program provides blind and visually impaired adults and seniors access to available resources, teaches them to maintain a level of adjustment to disability, to care for themselves through training in essential daily living skills and safe travel techniques, and to remain independent. Clients include low income, disabled seniors, across all ethnicities.
$ 22,800.00 $ 4,727.35
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Healthy
Connections
The proposal is an integrated approach to supporting adults with a serious mental illness in achieving optimal physical health and wellness in Santa Cruz County through access to healthy lifestyle services, diabetes prevention classes, food distribution, exercise activities and peer support services.
$ 24,685.00 $ 5,118.19
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
YouthServe
YouthSERVE supports middle school and high school students to build connections with the community through meaningful volunteer service in person and virtually, providing positive, skill building activities outside of school that promote well being, help meet school requirements and combats social isolation.
$ 25,000.00 $ 5,183.50
Walnut
Avenue Family
& Women's
Center
Space for Change
Walnut Avenue, in collaboration with Conflict Resolution Center, will facilitate a Transformative Justice-based approach to working with families experiencing violence, which offers an alternative to traditional justice system approaches that commonly retraumatize and harm already marginalized populations. This program aims to keep families whole and interrupt inter-generational cycles violence. $ 25,000.00 $ 5,183.50

1.34 13
Wings
Homeless
Advocacy
Vital Documents
Our Vital Docs Program decreases barriers to housing and health while increasing economic mobility by helping people experiencing homelessness or those at risk get their birth certificates and ID. This collaborative program will provide services to 600 people per year, also connecting them to other services as needed and doing housing problem solving with people who have no case management. $ 25,000.00 $ 5,183.50

1.35 1
Agreement between the County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department and the City of Santa Cruz
This Agreement is entered into on ______________ (the “Effective Date”), by, and between the County of Santa Cruz on behalf of the County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department (County) and the City of Santa Cruz (CITY). The County and the City may be referred to herein collectively as Parties.

I. PURPOSE
This Agreement is entered into by and between the Parties, for the purpose of coordinating the funding and administration of the Collective of Results and Evidence-based (CORE) Investments Program (hereinafter “CORE Investments”) during the Fiscal Years 2022 to 2025. The purpose of this Agreement is to specify the roles and responsibilities of each of the Parties who are each contributing funding to CORE Investments.

II. BACKGROUND
COUNTY and CITY are partnering to fund the CORE Investments, a locally created framework that utilizes a collective, results-based approach to achieve and impact the community’s equitable health and well-being. Both COUNTY and CITY are investing significant local dollars, with COUNTY agreeing to award approximately $4,823,967 per year and CITY to award approximately $1,080,000 per year for each of the three fiscal years, from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025. Grant funds are intended to focus on improving conditions of well-being for community members experiencing the greatest challenges and barriers in the County.

COUNTY and CITY will grant CORE Investment Awards to selected local organizations (“recipients” and/or “awardees”) that will consist of three-year contracts with specific performance deliverables. Most of the funds will support a broad base of direct service programs while a smaller portion of the funds will be directed to a single “Targeted Impact” program, a model rooted in principles of collective impact. COUNTY and CITY staff will partner to select all CORE Investments awardees, and to review all related contracts. Although funds contributed by CITY to CORE Investments will be primarily directed to programs that serve CITY residents, and CITY will play a role in the award of CORE Investments funding, COUNTY will administer all the contracts awarded through the CORE Investments, including distributing all invoice payments on behalf of both Parties.

III. TERM
This Agreement shall commence on the Effective Date and remain in full force and effect through June 30, 2025. The Parties may modify and/or extend the terms of this Agreement via a written amendment signed by both Parties.

IV. SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES

1.36 2
A. The Parties shall obtain the approval of this Agreement from the respective governing bodies of COUNTY and CITY contemporaneously with the approval of FY 22-23 through FY 24-25 CORE Investments contracts.

B. The Parties shall designate both contract administration and fiscal staff responsible for the efficient operation of the multi-jurisdictional aspects of CORE Investments.

C. Each year, prior to approval of the next fiscal year budget, the Parties will meet to discuss the administration and progress of the CORE Investments program. Any changes to the participation of either party must be determined prior to the start of the next fiscal year, including determining the method of claiming and payment to COUNTY for CITY’s annual contribution for CORE Investments.

D. Negotiate with CORE Investment awardees to develop impactful and mutually beneficial performance measures for their agreements.

E. Should a CORE Investment contract that is partially funded by CITY be abandoned or otherwise terminated, CITY and COUNTY will coordinate to determine how unused funding will be repurposed.

V. SCCHSD RESPONSIBILITIES

A. COUNTY shall execute and manage the CORE Investment contracts including the RFP process. This includes executing agreements with CORE Investment awardees and adhering to the terms and requirements listed within them, including but not limited to:

1. Paying and tracking invoices, and

2. Collecting periodic reports from contractors.

B. COUNTY shall manage the protests and appeals process related to CORE Investment Awards through the Santa Cruz County General Services Director, who will coordinate and consult as needed with the Santa Cruz County Human Services Director, City of Santa Cruz Manager and/or Assistant and jurisdictional legal counsel.

C. COUNTY shall share reports/data with CITY for jointly-funded contracts via email as soon as reasonably possible after they are received from CORE Investments recipients.

D. If CITY requests that a special report or analysis be provided, then CITY and COUNTY will coordinate regarding the feasibility of the request and options for ensuring CITY has necessary information for CITY-specific analysis. The Parties will meet and confer to consider reasonable charges for CITY specific reports.

1.37 3
E. COUNTY shall notify CITY within 30 days after the semi-annual reports have been submitted to the County if a jointly-funded CORE recipient is significantly failing to meet CORE Investments contract performance measures.

F. All CORE Investment contracts that are partially funded by CITY shall include CITY as an additionally name insured party in all contract insurance liability requirements under the terms of the CORE Investment Contracts.

1. Additional language shall be included in such contracts whereby the CORE Investment recipient agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the CITY, and the CITY’s officials, officers, employees, agents, and volunteers, from and against any and all liability, claim, action, loss, injury, damage, or expense, caused by or resulting from the negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct of the CORE Investment awardee as related to the CORE Investment contract.

2. Proof of insurance to be gathered by COUNTY, kept on file, and provided to CITY upon request.

G. In the event of a serious performance failure or breach of a CORE Investment contract by an awardee of a jointly-funded CORE Investment contract, COUNTY shall take lead role in determining appropriate corrective action or termination of the contract.

1. COUNTY shall involve CITY in corrective action or termination as soon as is reasonably possible; time is of the essence.

2. COUNTY reserves the right to delay payment of an invoice or invoices to a CORE Investment recipient pending the receipt of a late report, including those funded in part by CITY, as per the recipient agreement terms.

VI. CITY RESPONSIBILITIES

A. CITY shall reimburse COUNTY for CITY award portion of CORE Investments program within 30 days of the agreed upon deadline with the COUNTY.

B. CITY shall review COUNTY periodic reports submitted by CORE Investments contracts that are funded partially by CITY and advise COUNTY of any issues raised by the submitted reports within 30 days of receipt of those reports.

VII. GENERAL PROVISIONS
A. MUTUAL INDEMNIFICATION

1.38 4
Each Party (“Indemnitor”) to this Agreement agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the other Party to this Agreement, and the other Party’s respective officials, officers, employees, and volunteers (“Indemnitees”) from any claims, demands, damages, and liability of any kind or nature, including attorneys’ fees and costs, but only in proportion to and to the extent that any such liability imposed on the Indemnitees is proximately due to the negligent acts or omissions of the Indemnitor, its officials, officers, employees, volunteers, invitees, or others under Indemnitor’s control or authority relating to this Agreement.

Each Party’s respective employees remain subject to the direction and control of their respective employer, and shall not be considered as an employee of the other Party. Each Party shall be responsible for the conduct and actions of its respective employees. Employees remain subject to the direction and control of their respective employer, and shall not be considered as an employee of the other Party. Each Party shall be responsible for the conduct and actions of its respective employees.

B. INSURANCE PROVISIONS
Without limiting the indemnification of either party to this Agreement, each Party shall maintain or cause to be maintained its own insurance coverage at a minimum of: (i) a policy of commercial general liability with limits of liability not less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) per occurrence and two million dollars ($2,000,000) annual aggregate; (ii) a policy of workers’ compensation providing statutory coverage; and (iii) such other insurance or self-insurance as shall be necessary to insure it against any claim or claims for damages arising under the Agreement. Insurance afforded by the commercial general liability policy shall be endorsed to provide coverage to the other Party of this Agreement as an additional insured. Each Party to this Agreement shall provide a Certificate of Insurance certifying that coverage as required herein has been obtained. The requirements of this section may be satisfied by the provision of similar coverage through a self-insurance program.

C. RECORDS
Each Party shall maintain and preserve all records related to this Agreement (and shall assure the maintenance of such records in the possession of any third-party performing work related to this Agreement) for a minimum period of five (5) years from the date of final payment under this Agreement. Such records shall be retained beyond the five-year period until any pending litigation, claim, negotiation, audit exception, or other action involving this Agreement is resolved.

D. FISCAL
The obligation of the CITY under this Agreement shall be to provide 4 equal transfers of $270,000 funds, for a total amount of $1,080,000 each fiscal year, with the first transfer in August, and the subsequent payments in October, January, and April annually and/or for the term of the Agreement.

1.39 5
Invoices will be sent to:

City of Santa Cruz
City Manager’s Office
Attn: Suzanne Haberman
809 Center Street, Room 10
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Payments will be sent to:

Santa Cruz County Human Services Department
Centralized Contracting Unit
1040 Emeline Ave.

Santa Cruz, CA 95060
All payments must be received no later than 30 days after the agreed upon due date, or after termination of this Agreement.

E. NOTICE
Notice to the Parties in connection with this Agreement shall be given in writing, via email and concurrently delivered by first-class mail, addressed as follows:

Notice to SCCHSD:

Randy Morris, Deputy Director
County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department
1000 Emeline Ave.

Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Notice to CITY:

Laura Schmidt, Assistant City Manager
City Manager’s Office
809 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Each Party reserves the right to make a reasonable change to the designated contact person and address of its own contact person. Such change shall be required to be in writing and provide at least 30 days’ notice to the other party in advance of the change. Such change shall not require an amendment to this Agreement.

F. NO AGENCY
It is expressly understood and agreed that none of the Parties are in any way or for any purpose an agent of each other related to this Agreement.

G. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

1.40 6
This Agreement contains the entire agreement of the Parties and each party acknowledges there were no other oral agreements, representations, warranties or statements of fact made prior to or at the time of the signing of this Agreement.

H. SEVERABILITY
If any term or provision of this Agreement is declared invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

I. WAIVER
Waiver by any Party of any portion of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of the same or any other portion hereof.

J. INTERPRETATION
Each Party acknowledges that it has reviewed this Agreement and that the normal rule of construction to the effect that any ambiguities are to be resolved against the drafting party shall not be employed in the interpretation of this Agreement.

K. COUNTERPARTS
This Agreement may be executed in counterparts, and when each Party has signed and delivered at least one such counterpart, each one shall be deemed an original and, when taken together with other signed counterparts, shall constitute one agreement, which shall be binding on and effective regarding all parties. Facsimile and scanned signatures have the same force and effect as original signatures.
(signature page follows)

1.41 7
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto acknowledge that they have read the terms of the Agreement, and are fully agreed thereto, and are authorized to execute this Agreement on the behalf of their respective entity:

BY
Laura Schmidt, Assistant City Manager Date
City of Santa Cruz
BY
Randy Morris, Director Date
County of Santa Cruz
Human Services Department
APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Office of the City Attorney
Date

APPROVED AS TO FISCAL
PROVISIONS:

City of Santa Cruz Finance Director
Date
APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Office of the County Counsel
Date
APPROVED AS TO INSURANCE:

Santa Cruz County Risk Manager
Date

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1.42 Certificate Of Completion
Envelope Id: E88BCA812F8B4623A37EAE0B4B1E1D19 Status: Sent Subject: Please DocuSign: CORE FY22-25 City-County_Agreement.pdf Source Envelope:

Document Pages: 7 Signatures: 4 Envelope Originator:

Certificate Pages: 5 Initials: 0 Trish Daniels
AutoNav: Enabled
EnvelopeId Stamping: Enabled
Time Zone: (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
701 Ocean Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
[email protected]
IP Address: 63.194.190.100
Record Tracking
Status: Original
6/1/2022 9:09:44 AM
Holder: Trish Daniels
[email protected]
Location: DocuSign
Security Appliance Status: Connected Pool: FedRamp
Storage Appliance Status: Connected Pool: County of Santa Cruz Location: DocuSign Signer Events Signature Timestamp
Ruby Marquez
[email protected]
Santa Cruz County Counsel's Office
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None) Signature Adoption: Uploaded Signature Image
Signed by link sent to
[email protected]
Using IP Address: 63.194.190.100
Sent: 6/1/2022 9:21:57 AM
Viewed: 6/1/2022 3:01:40 PM
Signed: 6/1/2022 3:02:58 PM
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 4/6/2022 9:14:03 AM
ID: 6afa29e9-25dc-47c4-a427-dc9f8f33ff9d
Enrique Sahagun
[email protected]
Risk Manager
County of Santa Cruz
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style
Signed by link sent to
[email protected]
Using IP Address: 63.194.190.100
Sent: 6/1/2022 3:02:59 PM
Viewed: 6/1/2022 5:22:00 PM
Signed: 6/1/2022 5:23:11 PM
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 2/28/2022 5:38:23 PM
ID: 53dded50-e6e0-41af-93b9-11ee12d5835c
Bobby Magee
[email protected]
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style
Signed by link sent to [email protected]
Using IP Address: 207.89.57.143
Sent: 6/1/2022 5:23:13 PM
Viewed: 6/1/2022 5:27:56 PM
Signed: 6/1/2022 5:28:04 PM
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 6/1/2022 5:27:56 PM
ID: 49df0d54-3dac-4818-9cf9-6a42d9b44979

1.43 Signer Events Signature Timestamp
Stephanie Hall
[email protected]
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style
Signed by link sent to [email protected]
Using IP Address: 12.39.145.2
Sent: 6/1/2022 5:28:06 PM
Viewed: 6/2/2022 1:05:42 PM
Signed: 6/2/2022 1:10:26 PM
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 6/2/2022 1:05:42 PM
ID: e370b219-88c8-4918-80f0-334b01f4e3f1
CBD eSignature
[email protected]
County of Santa Cruz
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Sent: 6/2/2022 1:10:28 PM
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 3/1/2022 5:29:04 PM
ID: c4e5a2a3-4d71-4795-ac63-16aaad036e28
Laura Schmidt
[email protected]
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 5/31/2022 2:28:58 PM
ID: 44ca060d-e823-43dc-b5fc-02e3278dddbc
Randy Morris
[email protected]
Security Level: Email, Account Authentication
(None)
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure:

Accepted: 3/1/2022 8:02:45 AM
ID: c7362043-de18-4181-9754-5e8c969f03c1
In Person Signer Events Signature Timestamp
Editor Delivery Events Status Timestamp
Agent Delivery Events Status Timestamp
Intermediary Delivery Events Status Timestamp
Certified Delivery Events Status Timestamp
Carbon Copy Events Status Timestamp
Witness Events Signature Timestamp
Notary Events Signature Timestamp
Envelope Summary Events Status Timestamps
Envelope Sent Hashed/Encrypted 6/1/2022 9:21:57 AM
Payment Events Status Timestamps
Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure

1.44 ELECTRONIC RECORD AND SIGNATURE DISCLOSURE
From time to time, County of Santa Cruz (we, us or Company) may be required by law to provide to you certain written notices or disclosures. Described below are the terms and conditions for providing to you such notices and disclosures electronically through the DocuSign system. Please read the information below carefully and thoroughly, and if you can access this information electronically to your satisfaction and agree to this Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure (ERSD), please confirm your agreement by selecting the check-box next to ‘I agree to use electronic records and signatures’ before clicking ‘CONTINUE’ within the DocuSign system.

Getting paper copies
At any time, you may request from us a paper copy of any record provided or made available electronically to you by us. You will have the ability to download and print documents we send to you through the DocuSign system during and immediately after the signing session and, if you elect to create a DocuSign account, you may access the documents for a limited period of time (usually 30 days) after such documents are first sent to you. After such time, if you wish for us to send you paper copies of any such documents from our office to you, you will be charged a $0.00 per-page fee. You may request delivery of such paper copies from us by following the procedure described below.

Withdrawing your consent
If you decide to receive notices and disclosures from us electronically, you may at any time change your mind and tell us that thereafter you want to receive required notices and disclosures only in paper format. How you must inform us of your decision to receive future notices and disclosure in paper format and withdraw your consent to receive notices and disclosures electronically is described below.

Consequences of changing your mind
If you elect to receive required notices and disclosures only in paper format, it will slow the speed at which we can complete certain steps in transactions with you and delivering services to you because we will need first to send the required notices or disclosures to you in paper format, and then wait until we receive back from you your acknowledgment of your receipt of such paper notices or disclosures. Further, you will no longer be able to use the DocuSign system to receive required notices and consents electronically from us or to sign electronically documents from us.

All notices and disclosures will be sent to you electronically
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1.45 Unless you tell us otherwise in accordance with the procedures described herein, we will provide electronically to you through the DocuSign system all required notices, disclosures, authorizations, acknowledgements, and other documents that are required to be provided or made available to you during the course of our relationship with you. To reduce the chance of you inadvertently not receiving any notice or disclosure, we prefer to provide all of the required notices and disclosures to you by the same method and to the same address that you have given us. Thus, you can receive all the disclosures and notices electronically or in paper format through the paper mail delivery system. If you do not agree with this process, please let us know as described below. Please also see the paragraph immediately above that describes the consequences of your electing not to receive delivery of the notices and disclosures electronically from us.

How to contact County of Santa Cruz:

You may contact us to let us know of your changes as to how we may contact you electronically, to request paper copies of certain information from us, and to withdraw your prior consent to receive notices and disclosures electronically as follows:

To contact us by email send messages to: [email protected] To advise County of Santa Cruz of your new email address To let us know of a change in your email address where we should send notices and disclosures electronically to you, you must send an email message to us at [email protected] and in the body of such request you must state: your previous email address, your new email address. We do not require any other information from you to change your email address.

If you created a DocuSign account, you may update it with your new email address through your account preferences.

To request paper copies from County of Santa Cruz
To request delivery from us of paper copies of the notices and disclosures previously provided by us to you electronically, you must send us an email to [email protected] and in the body of such request you must state your email address, full name, mailing address, and telephone number. We will bill you for any fees at that time, if any.

To withdraw your consent with County of Santa Cruz
To inform us that you no longer wish to receive future notices and disclosures in electronic format you may:

1.46 i. decline to sign a document from within your signing session, and on the subsequent page, select the check-box indicating you wish to withdraw your consent, or you may; ii. send us an email to [email protected] and in the body of such request you must state your email, full name, mailing address, and telephone number. We do not need any other information from you to withdraw consent.. The consequences of your withdrawing consent for online documents will be that transactions may take a longer time to process..

Required hardware and software
The minimum system requirements for using the DocuSign system may change over time. The current system requirements are found here: https://support.docusign.com/guides/signer-guidesigning-system-requirements.

Acknowledging your access and consent to receive and sign documents electronically To confirm to us that you can access this information electronically, which will be similar to other electronic notices and disclosures that we will provide to you, please confirm that you have read this ERSD, and (i) that you are able to print on paper or electronically save this ERSD for your future reference and access; or (ii) that you are able to email this ERSD to an email address where you will be able to print on paper or save it for your future reference and access. Further, if you consent to receiving notices and disclosures exclusively in electronic format as described herein, then select the check-box next to ‘I agree to use electronic records and signatures’ before clicking ‘CONTINUE’ within the DocuSign system.

By selecting the check-box next to ‘I agree to use electronic records and signatures’, you confirm that:
x You can access and read this Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure; and x You can print on paper this Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure, or save or send this Electronic Record and Disclosure to a location where you can print it, for future reference and access; and
x Until or unless you notify County of Santa Cruz as described above, you consent to receive exclusively through electronic means all notices, disclosures, authorizations, acknowledgements, and other documents that are required to be provided or made available to you by County of Santa Cruz during the course of your relationship with County of Santa Cruz.

1.47 CORE Recommended, Competitive, and Non-Recommended Proposals Alphabetical by Agency Targeted Impact Tier
Targeted Impact Proposals Recommended for CORE Funding
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total Recommended
Budget
United Way of
Santa Cruz County Cradle to Career
Cradle to Career Santa Cruz County will leverage individual and policy level strategies to center the lives of children, families, and youth that have been historically marginalized by racist systems and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. C2C will lead equitydriven assessments at schools, strengthen family leadership, and leverage partnerships to support thriving families.
$ 770,089
Targeted Impact Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total Requested
Community
Foundation Santa
Cruz County
Rise Together and
South County
Triage Group
Advancing racial equity with BIPOC-led coalitions born amid COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter: Rise Together and South County Triage Group. We will build networks of leaders of color implementing urgent local human services solutions rooted in equity. UCSC Blum Center’s community-engaged evaluation will assess the effectiveness and impact of the coalitions and their initiatives.
$795,000

1.48 Large Tier
Large Tier Proposals Recommended for CORE Funding
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total Recommended
Budget
Community Action
Board of Santa
Cruz County, Inc.

CAB - South County
Housing
Collaborative
The South County Housing Collaborative proposes to provide vital and coordinated homelessness prevention and intervention services to very-low income, homeless and housing insecure families with children in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District area that will provide greater stability and equity for the families and improved and more equitable educational outcomes for their children.
$ 338,798.87
Community
Bridges
Meals on Wheels
for Santa Cruz
County (MOW)
Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County, a program of Community Bridges, will provide meals to older adults 60 + following Dietary Guidelines for Americans providing a minimum one-third of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI’s). The meals are available at our four congregate dining sites and through our home delivered meal program, also known as Older Americans Act Title III-C-1 and C-2 respectively. $ 436,221.72
Dientes
Community
Dental Care
Dientes
Community Dental
Care
As the largest local oral health care provider and a critical part of the health care safety net, Dientes provides preventative dental care and affordable treatment for thousands living in poverty. We work to ensure that cost, insurance, income, language, and transportation don't prevent people from visiting the dentist. We respectfully request support to improve equitable access to care.
$ 208,998.67
Santa Cruz
Community
Ventures
Semillitas
Ventures will expand its countywide Semillitas College Savings Account program that includes equity-boosting Milestone Contribution opportunities. This family-centered program encourages ongoing positive behaviors, high expectations, and increased participation in activities focused on early childhood development, health, education, and financial capability.
$ 436,221.72
Second Harvest
Food Bank Santa
Cruz County
Second Harvest
Food Bank Santa
Cruz County
Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County will distribute at least ten millions pounds of food as needed by the community, improve the capacity of our non profit partners to provide more food while up-leveling their ability to use data to improve their food pantries, and provide nutrition education workshops and cooking clubs to encourage diet changes that improve life-long health outcomes.
$ 241,680.40

1.49 Large Tier Competitive Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding (Scored 80 and above) Agency Submission Name Program Summary Total Requested
Salud Para La
Gente
Advancing Diabetes
Management in
the Pajaro Valley
Salud will improve diabetes care and health outcomes for its predominantly Latinx patients with diabetes who experience significant health disparities and barriers to access to care. Salud will implement clinical interventions (e.g. blood glucose tests, annual eye exams) and structured, culturally competent health coaching as well as selfmanagement education grounded in evidence-based practices. $ 377,330
Senior Network
Services, Inc.

Aging in
Community
The Aging in Community Project will provide holistic services to help Santa Cruz County seniors continue living independently. Our one-stop service delivery model serves over 12,000 clients each year. The Older Americans Act mandates our services be provided and necessitates local match dollars; for every CORE dollar requested in this proposal two additional dollars are brought into the community.
$ 150,001
Large Tier Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding (Scored below 80) Agency Submission Name Program Summary Total Requested
Community
Bridges
Early Education
Division
The Early Education Division requests $269,750 funds to support affordable quality early education services across nine classrooms located throughout Santa Cruz County, promoting positive teacher-child-family relationships, social/emotional support, and learning opportunities in order to increase child and family resiliency for equitable long term opportunity and growth.
$ 269,750
Encompass
Community
Services
Outpatient MAT
Services
Lack of equitable access to quality care exists for many who are unable to navigate traditional medical systems. Our goal is to reduce these barriers by offering a low barrier client centered Medication Assisted Treatment program that supports individuals struggling with opioid use disorder to stabilize on buprenorphine, reduce overdose events and establish care with a permanent medical home. $ 450,000

1.50 Housing Matters
180 Together
Permanent
Supportive Housing
180 Together is a permanent supportive housing program that places individuals into permanent housing by providing 1x1 housing support and connection to tenant-based housing choice vouchers. The program works with 40 households per year to find and pay for housing and provides a minimum of 1-year of support after housing is located in order to ensure housing stability and retention.
$ 339,310
Santa Cruz
Community
Health Centers
Expanding
Equitable Access to
Primary and
Behavioral
Healthcare
SCCH will expand access to high-quality care for 3000 people, with a specific focus on the preventive and behavioral health needs of children, patients who are homeless, and patients who are monolingual Spanish speakers. We have centered on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to ensure that the expansion serves low-income patients through humility, mitigation of power inequities, and accountability.
$ 450,000

1.51 Medium Tier
Medium Tier Proposals Recommended for CORE Funding
Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total Recommended
Budget
Arts Council
Santa Cruz
County
Mariposa Arts
Arts Council Santa Cruz County seeks funds to deepen its Mariposa Arts TEACH program in Watsonville schools by doubling the paid time for high school student teachers to meet with teaching artist mentors. Weekly mentorship will help them hone their teaching and leadership skills to provide service to 4,000+ youth and expand time to refine their art skill and create a community service art project.
$ 38,786.89
Association
of Faith
Communities
of Santa Cruz
County
Safe Spaces
The Association of Faith Communities is seeking to expand its case management staff for our Safe Spaces program, which serves as the largest safe parking program in the county.

Individuals sleeping in their vehicles face numerous inequities. Increasing case management staff would give program participant's increased capacity and resources to move toward permanent housing.
$ 112,637.13
Boys & Girls
Clubs of
Santa Cruz
County
Boys & Girls Clubs
of Santa Cruz
County
Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County will deliver Project Learn, an evidence-based practice that strives to improve students’ educational outcomes by increasing their interest in learning, enhancing their academic abilities, and improving their school grades. We will serve an estimated 1,300-1,550 youth ages 6-18 each year, via afterschool, summer, and holiday programs at our three Clubhouses.
$ 101,815.59
Coastal
Watershed
Council
Watershed Rangers
CWC’s Watershed Rangers program provides critical, high-quality learning opportunities for 500 K-5th grade youth in the Santa Cruz City Schools Elementary District to reverse learning lag resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and improve social emotional development for our youngest, Latinx and English language learners who are most in need of support. $ 67,877.06
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

Alcance -
Links2Work and
Day Worker Center
CAB’s Alcance Program will address the need for critical employment support and services to two hard to serve groups and their families, those who have been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs and local day workers. Services include intensive, motivational case management, job training and placement tailored to the individuals. $ 96,967.23
Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

CAB - Davenport
Resource Service
Center
CAB’s Davenport Resource Service Center, the only service provider for the isolated North Coast, will use CORE funds for on-going, weekly food distributions to 150 low-income households/month; to provide 45 farmworker families with enhanced access to food and case management; operate the North Coast Teen Center, Homework Club, and Summer Recreation/Lunch; and to provide case management to seniors. $ 77,573.78

1.52 Community
Action Board
of Santa Cruz
County, Inc.

Youth Homeless
Response Team
Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Inc.’s (CAB) Youth Homeless Response Team (YHRT) proposes to identify and serve youth and young adults (YYA) ages 15-24, primarily unaccompanied, with individualized services to help resolve their homelessness/housing insecurity, as well as connections to employment, education and mentoring services to help them overcome barriers to thriving.
$ 144,966.00
Eat for the
Earth Community Rx
Most people in our county will spend their later years sick and will die from diet-related fatal conditions—heart disease, diabetes, and others. The food on our forks affects all groups, but some groups more than others. Community Rx uses diet, education, and targeted universalism to address racial inequities—focusing on the needs of the particular and lifting the health of our entire community.
$ 94,813.59
Encompass
Community
Services
Health Equity for All
The “Health Equity for All” proposal seeks to improve health equity and lifespans of persons served in our residential treatment service lines. A majority of premature deaths of people who struggle with severe mental illness and substance disorders due to physical medical conditions are preventable. Physical activity, healthy eating habits, and community support can have protective effects.
$ 144,822.61
Encompass
Community
Services
V.O.I.C.E. (Valuing
Our Individual
Client Experiences)
To support equitable access to culturally responsive and effective behavioral health services, we propose integration of 3 best practices across Encompass behavioral health services.

These strategies are design to uplift clients’ voices throughout treatment and strengthen providers’ ability to deliver quality services.
$ 140,838.11
FoodWhat,
Inc Food What?!
FoodWhat (FW) is a youth empowerment and food justice organization. We provide meaningful space where youth define and cultivate their empowerment, liberation and wellbeing by developing relationships with land, food, and each other. As a FW Crew, we grow, cook, eat and distribute fresh, healthy food while also addressing local food justice issues. $ 34,011.26

1.53 Grey Bears Healthy Food
Program
Grey Bears Healthy Food program ensures that Santa Cruz County aging adults – including isolated and disabled seniors – have access to nutritious food, food security, opportunities to volunteer and engage socially, remain active and in their own homes, and live healthy, meaningful lives.
$ 131,937.49
Harm
Reduction
Coalition of
Santa Cruz
County
Harm Reduction
Coalition of Santa
Cruz County
The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County will use requested funds to sustain two key staff positions in need of permanent funding, perform a rigorous evaluation of our Syringe Services Program to measure our fidelity to the evidence-based model and make improvements, and to expand our existing county-wide collaborations to improve the entire continuum of care for People Who Use Drugs.
$ 144,481.17
Housing
Matters
Community
Conversations on
Homelessness
Housing Matters’ Community Conversations on Homelessness program will provide individuals with lived experience of homelessness opportunities to speak in public forums, along with an online storytelling platform. Through various media, they will educate the general public about the experience of homelessness and related issues to reduce stigma and encourage a compassionate community response.
$ 114,852.84
Jacob’s Heart
Children’s
Cancer
Support
Services
Comprehensive
Grief Support
Services for Low
Income Families of
Children with
Cancer
Jacob’s Heart will improve access to bicultural support services for low-income disenfranchised families suffering anticipatory grief or the traumatic loss of a precious child through the expansion of our Grief Support Program - including scaling up peer mentorship, individual psychotherapy and support groups and access to support groups, outings for bereaved siblings, and Forever Loved Camp.
$ 96,967.23
Live Earth
Farm
Discovery
Program
Live Earth Farm
Discovery Program
Improve personal, community and food system health through nutrition and farming education and food access partnerships that improve nutrition security. During active, onfarm programs students, chaperones, campers and families are empowered to be active and choose and access nutritious fresh, fruits and vegetables. $ 96,967.23
Monarch
Services -
Servicios
Monarca
Positive Solutions
Program
This program focuses on providing tools to stop abusive behavior, developing an appreciation of emotions and changing the attitudes that have
contributed to abusive behavior.
$ 110,867.48
Monarch
Services -
Servicios
Monarca
Therapeutic
Services Program
Individual therapeutic services for adult and youth survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. $ 145,378.12

1.54 NAMI Santa
Cruz County
Free Mental Health
Services in Spanish
NAMISCC seeks funding to sustain and expand our free mental health services in Spanish.

Services include support groups, classes, a Help Line, and mental health presentations in schools, all of which are led by trained bilingual facilitators with the lived experience of mental illness.Those served are Latinx people urgently needing help to deal with their own mental illness or that of a loved one.
$ 93,088.54
New Life
Community
Services, Inc
New Life
Community Services
- Self-Pay program
New Life Community Services ("NLCS") provides residential substance use disorder treatment and reentry services to individuals and families. We seek funding to continue offering our self-pay program, which serves clients who have no insurance or existing resources to pay for treatment. Without additional funding, the agency will need to decrease spaces available in the self-pay program.
$ 53,331.98
Pajaro Valley
Prevention
and Student
Assistance
Familias UnidasUnited Families
The familias Unidas project aims to to promote resilience, reduce isolation, rebuild family cohesion and connectedness. Our case management team will conduct needs assessments, link families to resources, engage all families in an eight week evidence based family centered program, and provide pro-social opportunites for the youth/children that take part of this family system.
$ 145,251.09
Santa Cruz
City Schools
Computer Science
for All
Santa Cruz City Schools’ Computer Science for All Program aims to address existing disparities in computer science education through teacher training and parent engagement. These strategies are designed to give all of our elementary students, especially female and Latinx students, access to high quality curriculum and the opportunity to see themselves as computer scientists.
$ 100,347.51
Santa Cruz
Community
Health
Centers
Integrated
Behavioral Health
HealthySteps is an evidence-based program, that ensures all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life. HealthySteps transforms pediatric care through a unique team-based approach that integrates a HealthySteps Specialist/child development expert, into the health care team. All families from prenatal to age 5 and their families will receive a tiered model of services, from universal screening
$ 144,481.17
Senior
Citizens'
Legal Service
(SCLS)
Increased Service
Capacity SCLS 2022
SCLS is the sole provider in our County of free legal services to seniors, working on a lean budget since 1972. We've grown to meet the increased demand for services due to isolation & risk of homelessness seniors faced during the pandemic & fraud, discrimination, & elder abuse. This grant will support our strategic plan for an additional attorney & staff increasing the number of seniors served.
$ 77,573.78

1.55 Senior
Network
Services, Inc.

Santa Cruz County
Aging & Disability
Resource
Connection (ADRC)
Capacity Building
Project
To build a first-class Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) for the residents of Santa Cruz County. To design the ADRC to incorporate the maximum number of partners and programs and to positively impact the lives of seniors, people with disabilities and care providers. In short, to take a major step in making Santa Cruz County a 21st century age and able friendly community.
$ 50,907.80
Teen Kitchen
Project
Home-delivered
Medically Tailored
Meals for
Vulnerable
Populations
Teen Kitchen Project provides critically and chronically ill people in Santa Cruz County with home-delivered, medically-tailored free or low cost meals. Meals are prepared by teen chefs who benefit from the opportunity to give back to their community while learning valuable workforce and life skills. Medically tailored meals have been proven to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.
$ 145,450.85
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Restorative Justice
Programs
Our criminal justice system is inequitable and has outcomes that are literally the worst in the world! Our Restorative Justice Programs intervene with proven, practical supports and coaching during the first 6 months after release from incarceration to help people re-enter our community more successfully, creating a path away from justice system involvement and towards shared healing and safety.
$ 45,089.76
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Volunteer Center of
Santa Cruz County
Empowered Aging
Programs
We increase the health, safety and well being of seniors, and build a more vibrant community. Our Empowered Aging programs are county wide, with opportunities for seniors to help others through meaningful volunteering and receive help from volunteers, creating a more equitable community. We offer a suite of free home and community based services in English and Spanish to 500-600 elders.
$ 43,635.25
Walnut
Avenue
Family &
Women's
Center
Walnut Avenue
Early Education
Center
Walnut Avenue Early Education Center is increasing equity in health & well-being through affordable, high-quality bilingual early education, which sets all children up for success by maximizing school readiness; by allowing working or school-bound parents to trust in full-day excellent care of their child; and by providing employment in a healing organization which values empowerment and equity.
$ 48,483.62
Walnut
Avenue
Family &
Women's
Center
Youth Prevention
Program
Walnut Avenue's Youth Prevention Program utilizes evidence-based curricula and a Positive Youth Development framework to increase resilience among families and empower youth.

Our programs use a gender-inclusive, anti-racist, strengths based, and healing centered perspective to support participants to overcome the impact of ACE's, strenghten family bonds and increase safety for the community.
$ 29,090.17

1.56 Medium Tier Competitive Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding (Scored 80 and above) Agency Submission Name Program Summary Total Requested
Family
Service
Agency of
the Central
Coast (FSACC)
Suicide Prevention
Service of the
Central Coast
Our program provides solutions to people of all ages who are contemplating suicide or engaged in suicidal behavior. COVID-19 has increased isolation, stress, anxiety and depression, especially for people already struggling with inequities. We offer a 24-hour suicide crisis line with language translation, education, survivor and outreach services to provide life-sustaining support and referrals.
$
47,250
Hospice of
Santa Cruz
County
Access to End-ofLife Care for All
HSCC is requesting support for the End-of-Life Care for All program. This program aims to reduce the access gap that exists for complete end-of-life care in Santa Cruz County, with a focus on reducing the equity gap in utilization rates of hospice and palliative care that exists between White/Caucasian and Hispanic/Latino individuals in our county. $
144,600
New Life
Community
Services, Inc
Gemma House
Gemma is a unique program serving females exiting the criminal justice system and experiencing substance use disorders. Gemma provides transitional housing, in-custody classes, intensive case management, and opportunities for women to address crucial needs, develop life skills, and positively reenter their community. We seek funding to continue the work as the needs are as great as ever.
$
75,000
Santa Cruz
Community
Ventures
Alas
The Alas Program will help 30 Santa Cruz County (SCC) working-class Latino families per year build community, self-determination, and financial wellbeing. Families will receive a guaranteed $500 monthly financial gift, financial workshops, and financial coaching, helping them meet financial goals and increase their use of banking services, including opening an account for the first time.
$
149,000
Santa Cruz
Lesbian and
Gay
Community
Center
The Diversity
Center’s Health and
Wellbeing Initiative
The Diversity Center seeks to restructure as a health and well-being center that is in service to the needs of the larger LGBTQ+ community with specific support for youth and Latine populations. In addition, using evidence-based practices and programs, we will provide muchneeded mental health counseling and referral to care for the LGBTQ+ community. $
124,000

1.57 Medium Tier Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding (Scored below 80) Agency Submission Name Program Summary Total Requested
Advocacy
Inc.

Long-Term Care
Ombudsman
Program
From pre-placement needs to problem solving and resolution of complaints, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCO) of Santa Cruz County continues to be the only program that advocates for a higher quality of care and life for residents living in our community's long-term care facilities. Our program also works to identify and help repair systemic fractures, to improve those systems of care.
$
79,000
Arts Council
Santa Cruz
County
Watsonville
Performing Arts
Facility
Addressing the critical need for accessible and culturally-informed performance arts space in Watsonville, Arts Council will lease and manage a facility and invest funding and training for five anchor tenants to allow for the transition of management and financial responsibility to them over time. Artists will analyze systemic problems limiting sustainability potential and identify solutions.
$
50,000
Association
of Faith
Communities
of Santa Cruz
County
Faith Community
Shelter (medium)
The Association of Faith Communities is seeking to expand its case management staff for our Faith Community Shelter, which supports 16-20 individuals experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County. Our clients face numerous inequities, often centering on income.

Increasing case management staff would give program participant's increased capacity and resources to move toward permanent housing.
$
116,160
Big Brothers
Big Sisters of
Santa Cruz
County
Big Brothers Big
Sisters of Santa Cruz
County
Mentoring Support Works! Big Brothers Big Sisters Santa Cruz County Mentoring Program creates and supports life changing relationships for youth facing challenges due to societal and community inequities. Mentoring builds resilience resulting in improved attitudes and behaviors. Mentored youth make healthier decisions and choices. Our programs improve the trajectory of lives of those we serve.
$
100,000
Catholic
Charities of
the Diocese
of Monterey
Pathways to
Stability
Catholic Charities requests $141,600 annually to launch and implement the Pathways to Stability program across Santa Cruz County. The requested funds will cover the personnel, operating costs, and direct financial assistance to implement comprehensive services to support long-term individual goals for financial stability. $
141,600
Central Coast
YMCA Central Coast YMCA
Central Coast YMCA is seeking $30,000 to support Youth Fit 4 Life (YF4L), an evidence-based licensed obesity prevention and exercise promotion program for up to 416 Watsonville-area youth ages 3-15 each year. YF4L makes exercise and nutrition awareness accessible and fun for youth of all ages and backgrounds, creating positive exercise habits that youth will hopefully continue into adulthood.
$
40,889

1.58 Coastal
Watershed
Council
San Lorenzo River
Neighbors
The San Lorenzo River Neighbors project will engage youth and adult residents of the Lower Ocean and Beach Flats neighborhoods to co-develop and implement a community action plan to address the disproportionate impacts of pollution and flooding resulting from climate change in their neighborhoods.
$
75,000
Community
Bridges
Child and Adult
Care Food Program
The Child and Adult Care Food Program, a program of Community Bridges, requests $50,000 to support services alleviating hunger, fighting obesity, and promoting health and wellbeing for low income families in Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey County. $
50,000
Community
Bridges Elderday
Elderday Adult Day Health Care Center will provide essential affordable health, social, and wellness services for Santa Cruz County senior and disabled older adult residents in order to promote residents’ indepedence and wellbeing, while preventing early institutionalization and increasing access to equiteable resources for low income community members. $
150,000
Community
Bridges
La Manzana
Community
Resources
La Manzana Community Resource Center will provide wrap-around essential services through a whole-person care approach tailored to Santa Cruz County families and individuals in order to bridge critical unmet needs for community stability and upward mobility. $
150,000
Community
Bridges Lift Line
Community Bridges Lift Line Program, a Consolidated Transportation Services Agency (CTSA), will meet the crucial transportation needs of low income older adults and people with disabilities in Santa Cruz County. Lift Line participants include ethnic minorities and primarily under-resourced and isolated areas; 65% of services occur within low-income communities. $
50,000
Community
Bridges
Live Oak
Community
Resources
Live Oak Community Resources will provide wrap-around essential services through a whole person care approach tailored to Santa Cruz County families and individuals in order to bridge critical unmet needs for community stability and upward mobility. $
100,000
Community
Bridges
Mountain
Community
Resources
Mountain Community Resource Center will provide wrap-around essential services through a whole-person care approach tailored to families and individuals in order to bridge critical unmet needs for community stability and upward mobility. $
150,000
Community
Bridges
Nueva Vista
Community
Resources
Nueva Vista Community Resource Center will provide wrap-around essential services through a whole person care approach tailored to Santa Cruz County families and individuals in order to bridge critical unmet needs for community stability and upward mobility. $
100,000
Court
Appointed
Special
Advocates of
Santa Cruz
County
Court Appointed
Special Advocates
of Santa Cruz
County
CASA of Santa Cruz County advocates for abused and neglected children, providing court appointed volunteers so each child in Foster (Dependency) Care System feels cared for and connected with the people, families, and resources they need to heal and flourish into adulthood. This funding would allow us to maintain our high standard in the, recruitment, training, and supervision of volunteers.
$
129,958

1.59 Digital NEST,
Inc. Digital NEST, Inc.

Digital NEST is a youth workforce development center that provides free technical and soft skills training to youth, ages 14 to 24. Our powerful skill-based, STEM-inspired programs include Earn-As-You-Learn internships where members refine their skill sets, build a portfolio, and are empowered and prepared for academic achievement and the ability to prosper in the 21st Century workforceand.
$
150,000
Encompass
Community
Services
Transitional Age
Youth (TAY)
This project aims to connect with and engage youth experiencing houselessness through a variety of channels. Youth will all be assessed for enrollment in existing Transition Age Youth (TAY) programs and receive access to life skill building workshops, along with an extensive menu of services provided through the Transition Age Youth (TAY) resource center. $
130,000
Families In
Transition of
Santa Cruz
County, Inc
Navigation Access
Advocacy Visibility
The Navigation Access Advocacy Visibility program (NAAV) offers access and advocacy for families with dependent children who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability by providing housing navigation, including established and innovative landlord recruitment and retention practices, flexible financial assistance, and fostering visibility for the most vulnerable members of our community.
$
150,000
Family
Service
Agency of
the Central
Coast (FSACC)
FSA-CC Mental
Health Program:

Counseling Services,
Senior Outreach,
WomenCARE,
Survivors Healing
Center and I-You
Venture.

Our program provides solutions through professional and peer counseling, support groups and social engagement to clients of all ages experiencing mental health challenges. COVID-19 has increased stress, anxiety and depression, especially for people already struggling with inequities. Strategies to develop resilience and wellbeing are available to clients often unable to access services elsewhere.
$
148,720

FRIENDS OF

SANTA CRUZ
COUNTY

PARKS DBA
COUNTY
PARK

FRIENDS
ParkRx Santa Cruz
County
County Park Friends will support and activate “ParkRx Santa Cruz County,” a County-wide ParkRx framework that prescribes nature-based activities for addressing health inequities identified by medical partners. The Community Mobilization Leader program will expand to co-design and co-lead new ParkRx activities that are relevant and culturally-reflective of the target community.
$
133,100
Janus of
Santa Cruz Janus of Santa Cruz Janus enhanced care management will provide a higher level of case management services to clients and potential clients to assist them in navigating the services they need. $
149,862

1.60 Latin
Advocacy
Network
Free
Representation for
Unacompanied
Minors in Family
Courts for SIJS
Cases
LATINAN has been providing affordable immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, primarily farmer workers, since 2016. The increase in the number of unaccompanied minors we serve, whom require representation in court, pushed us to reach out for your support in improving our staffing capacity in order that we can better protect these unrepresented child immigrants in rural communities.
$
98,000
Mental
Health Client
Action
Network
Drop In Center
MHCAN currently relies upon CORE funding to provide current services. Unlike many places which conducted themselves remotely through the pandemic, MHCAN provided life saving in person services throughout the pandemic. This grant proposal is that we continue to get money to provide services from our Drop In Center which is a gateway for mental health as well as a vital community resource.
$
75,000
Mental
Health Client
Action
Network
Motivational
Interviewing for
Substance Abuse
Using the evidence based practice of Motivational Interviewing informed by the trauma informed care practice of
Intentional Peer Support, an MHCAN worker will be employed full time to assist those people dually diagnosed
with severe mental health disorders and substance abuse issues move towards & through recovery. This
will assist MHCAN to serve those people and our greater community both. $
71,765
Mental
Health Client
Action
Network
Seeking Safety
Educator
MHCAN will hire a full time Seeking Safety Educator to provide Trauma Informed Care to our population of individuals diagnosed with severe mental health diagnoses who deal with histories of sexual abuse and PTSD which is the vast majority of all our clients. Currently this is missing from the services we provide and has proved vital for other similar service models in other California counties.
$
71,765
MENtors
Driving
Change for
Boys, Men
and Dads
Two-Generation
service to
strengthen family
relationships,
support father
involvement and
nurture couples' coparenting
MENtors proposes a Two-Generation(Two-Gen) framework and community-based service designed to strengthen family relationships, help fathers to be more involved with their children, nurture couples' co-parenting skills, and provide a more positive environment for the children’s social-emotional development. We also intend to be a community catalyst for a paradigm shift in father-friendly services.
$
149,578

1.61 Pajaro Valley
Prevention
and Student
Assistance
Youth Matter
This proposal will support access to substance use disorder (SUD) early prevention and interventions services for youth in the Pajaro Valley. Recognizing the need for increase supports in this area and the limited access to SUD support services for youth in the region. $
144,339
Pajaro Valley
Unified
School
District
Healthy Start
Program
PVUSD’s Healthy Start Program nourishes and improves the intellectual, physical, and emotional wellbeing of PVUSD children and their families by working collaboratively with community partners to facilitate equitable access to essential health and social services.

Students, families and community thrive when we actively remove barriers to wellness, as well as eliminate disparities and inequities.
$
49,000
Parents
Center, Inc. Parents Center, Inc.

Our program, using leveraged funding provides a full spectrum of collaborative services from prevention and early intervention to episodic and ongoing wraparound treatment services, using culturally appropriate and evidence based best practices for the most vulnerable population of our county, youth ages 3-18.
$
50,000
Planned
Parenthood
Mar Monte
Planned
Parenthood Mar
Monte
Seeking funding to apply to our general medicine programs in order to improve quality of care, screening, and health outcomes as it pertains to diabetes and behavioral health in Santa Cruz County.
$
60,000
Recovery
Cafe Santa
Cruz
Recovery Cafe
RCSC will provide day services for people healing from substance use, mental health, domestic violence, and human trafficking, to those newly released from incarceration, and to those experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Weekly support groups, classes, nutritional lunches, and case management will be provided. RCSC will follow the Recovery Cafe model presently in 37 other cities.
$
100,000
Safe Families
for Children
Santa Cruz
Safe Families for
Children Santa Cruz
Safe Families requests $50,000 to advance the vision of CORE Investments to make "Santa Cruz County an equitable, thriving, resilient community where everyone shares responsibility for ensuring the health and well-being of all people, at every stage of life." We accomplish this by addressing each of the 8 CORE Conditions for families by creating family-like supports for families in crisis.
$
50,000
Santa Cruz
Barrio
Unidos, Inc.

Santa Cruz Barrio
Unidos, Inc.

Our program addresses barriers to acheiving optimal health , provides curative spaces in the face of historical inequities and oppression and provides pathways for our youth, where the importance of culture is understood, and individuals can draw strength from their authentic selves. Moving toward a world that is truly just for all. $
150,000

1.62 Santa Cruz
Children's
Museum of
Discovery
Santa Cruz
Children's Museum
of Discovery
The Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery proposes "MOD for All: Expanding Subsidized Access to Our County's Children's Museum," an approach to advance access and inclusion efforts in our county’s only children’s museum. The initiative is a concrete step to open the museum and support our broader community’s CORE commitment to Lifelong Learning and Education by removing monetary barriers.
$
102,200
Santa Cruz
Community
Health
Centers
Cradle to Career
Shoreline Expansion
Cradle to Career will expand to Shoreline Middle School by focusing on the development of equity-driven youth and parent leadership structures to identify and lead activities that foster positive social connections and holistic wellbeing. These activities will center the resilience of students and their families by connecting them to desired resources that empower them to heal and thrive.
$
148,500
Santa Cruz
County
Veterans
Memorial
Building
Board of
Trustees
Veterans Village
Veterans Village, a new project of the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building Board of Trustees provides safe, permanent supportive housing and on-site services for homeless Veterans in Santa Cruz County. Secure housing with vital services has been shown to make dramatic differences in Veterans’ lives, providing them opportunities to reclaim their lives and live with dignity and honor.
$
100,000
Santa Cruz
Museum of
Natural
History
Santa Cruz Museum
of Natural History
We honor the tenet “nothing about us, without us” with school field trips and classroom resources that incorporate Native Peoples’ perspectives as core to understanding natural history. Regional tribal representatives will collaborate on professional development for teachers to integrate Native voices into curricula. We will be able to produce standardsaligned, inclusive, and bilingual materials. $
32,626
Santa Cruz
Toddler Care
Center
Santa Cruz Toddler
Care Center
$
79,800
Senior
Citizens
Organization
of the San
Lorenzo
Valley
Senior Citizens
Organization of the
San Lorenzo Valley
The Highlands Park Senior Center serves the San Lorenzo Valley community. We help older adults to remain engaged and involved by offering education, recreation and social programs that involve the whole community. CORE funding will support staffing for these programs and allow us to expand our operations so that we can serve more people in the San Lorenzo Valley.
$
148,592

1.63 The Free
Guide
Free Guide
Publishing
The Santa Cruz Free Guide is already the definitive list of resources tailored for people experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. We are proposing an increase in publishing frequency, a robust program of data accuracy, and a distribution process that gets the Free Guide into the hands of each person experiencing homelessness in Santa Cruz County.
$
88,420
The Free
Guide Housing Navigation
We are proposing a county wide Housing Navigator. This Navigator will be matched with any person experiencing homelessness who has means to pay for a unit, and work with them to provide connections & coaching to find a unit and to be a good tenant. The Navigator would also build and maintain relationships with landlords and provide them ongoing support after their clients are housed with them.
$
127,720
The Free
Guide
Housing Retention
(North County)
We are proposing a Retention Specialist (North County) that will ensure that each homeless person who enters housing is accessing stabilizing resources; like mental health & substance use support, community activities, work opportunities, and tenant services. A Housing Retention fund will be paired with this Retention Specialist to overcome one-time financial needs that threaten their housing.
$
149,660
The Free
Guide
Housing Retention
(South County)
We are proposing a Retention Specialist (South County) that will ensure that each homeless person who enters housing is accessing stabilizing resources; like mental health & substance use support, community activities, work opportunities, and tenant services. A Housing Retention fund will be paired with this Retention Specialist to overcome one-time financial needs that threaten their housing.
$
149,660
The Free
Guide
Outreach Based
Case Management
(North County)
We are proposing an Outreach Based Case Management (North County) housing and problem solving program in which a case manager does outreach out into the community to conduct problem solving conversations and do case management with people who are homeless. A Rapid Re-Housing/Immediate Barrier fund will be paired with this case manager to help clients get over immediate financial needs.
$
149,660
The Free
Guide
Outreach Based
Case Management
(South County)
We are proposing an Outreach Based Case Management (South County) housing and problem solving program in which a case manager does outreach out into the community to conduct problem solving conversations and do case management with people who are homeless. A Rapid Re-Housing/Immediate Barrier fund will be paired with this case manager to help clients get over immediate financial needs.
$
149,660

1.64 The Free
Guide
Retention Activities
Specialist
We are proposing a Retention Activities Specialist that works with people who have gotten housed after becoming homeless to help them build friendships, community connections, and productive lives. This specialist will ensure each client is engaging in classes, activities and community events. An Activity fund will be paired with this specialist to help clients pay for classes and activities.
$
149,660
The Free
Guide
Walk Up Case
Management
(North County)
We are proposing a Walk Up Case Management (North County) housing and problem solving program in which a case manager stations themselves in a regular location in North County to conduct problem solving conversations and case management with people who are homeless. A Rapid Re-Housing/Immediate Barrier fund will be paired with this case manager to help clients overcome immediate financial needs.
$
148,320
The Free
Guide
Walk Up Case
Management
(South County)
We are proposing a Walk Up Case Management (South County) housing and problem solving program in which a case manager stations themselves in a regular location in South County to conduct problem solving conversations and case management with people who are homeless. A Rapid Re-Housing/Immediate Barrier fund will be paired with this case manager to help clients overcome immediate financial needs.
$
148,320
United Way
of Santa Cruz
County
United 4 Youth
To ensure that youth have the opportunity to reach their greatest potential, the United 4 Youth initiative provides wrap-around services and leadership support to promote college and career readiness, health and wellness, economic sustainability, and community connection among Santa Cruz County's highest-needs youth. $
75,000
Watsonville
Wetlands
Watch
Wetlands
Restoration
Watsonville Wetlands Watch will engage Pajaro Valley youth to remove litter from wetland and watershed areas in the Watsonville area and provide outdoor educational experiences that increase environmental stewardship behaviors and participation among youth in the Pajaro Valley.
$
26,789
Your Future
Is Our
Business
Your Future Is Our
Business
YFIOB would like to provide work-based learning opportunities to all students throughout Santa Cruz County. This award will bridge the financial gap between our organization and our local school districts, allowing our organization to continue our mission of bringing schools and businesses together to support students in becoming Santa Cruz County’s next generation of workers.
$
50,000
YWCA of
Watsonville
YWCA Early Care
Education
Provide Early Care Education Program and Family Engagement services for low income and working families in South County
$
50,000

1.65 Small Tier
Small Tier Proposals Recommended for CORE Funding (68 and above) Agency Submission Name Program Summary
Total Recommended
Budget
Acupuncturists
Without
Borders
AWB CARE Project
The AWB CARE Project seeks to reduce health care inequity; reduce chronic illness, pain, stress, and trauma; and support physical and emotional resilience in the Santa Cruz County farmworker community. We will do this by offering free, culturally responsive, traumainformed, integrative health care services at “pop-up” mobile clinics in the Watsonville, CA area.
$ 24,374.00
Encompass
Community
Services
Health & Housing
The project provides a seamless and supportive transition into housing for individuals early in their recovery as they prepare to step down from residential treatment. This project supports individuals in their efforts to obtain affordable, transitional housing with support for sobriety, as they take their next step in their recovery journey and move towards stability and independent living.
$ 24,474.00
Girls Inc. of
the Central
Coast
College Bound
We will offer three programs to girls ages 13-18, facilitated by peers, using strategies inspiring them to create a future that includes healthy relationships, educational attainment and economic independence. We assist them in planning for high school and college, identifying and defending personal values, developing leadership skills, overcoming systemic barriers and achieving lifelong wellness.
$ 22,500.00
Girls Inc. of
the Central
Coast
Health and
Wellness
We will offer two programs to girls ages 9-13, facilitated by peers, that inspire them to set health and wellness goals that include developing healthy relationships, practicing assertive communication skills, avoiding unhealthy behaviors, managing stress, handling conflict, gaining knowledge of reproductive health, and overcoming systemic barriers that prevent them from achieving their goals.
$ 10,500.00
Homeless
Garden
Project
Transitional
Employment for
Individuals
Experiencing
Homelessness
HGP’s yearlong transitional employment program provides wages, job training and support services to people experiencing homelessness. Trainees earn income, build job readiness skills and work to overcome obstacles to self-sufficiency in a supportive environment, while growing organic, local food for the community.
$ 25,000.00

1.66 Nourishing
Generations
Educational
Project
Nutrition, Culinary,
Fitness Education
Nutrition education, hands-on cooking, and fitness program for 3rd-5th graders in the afterschool program at all three Live Oak School District elementary schools - Del Mar, Live Oak, and Green Acres. This program provides each school with six weekly 2-hour long classes for students, and four 1-hour long nutrition and cooking demonstration for parents at each school site.
$ 22,000.00
Salud y Cariño Harbor High School
Girls Group
Salud y Cariño will expand its FREE weekly after school Girls Group program to Harbor High School in order to continue providing proactive opportunities for young women to build their confidence, resilience, and knowledge of positive health and wellness behaviors. Built on relational-cultural theory, the groups are driven by the girls’ voices and led by bicultural women from the community.
$ 19,524.00
Senderos Las Artes Culturales
de Senderos
Senderos provides equitable access to cultural arts activities, educational pathways, and community resources for Latinx youth and families. Las Artes Culturales de Senderos will offer free folkloric dance and traditional music programs, share indigenous traditions through festivals and performances, strengthen families and community belonging, and inclusively celebrate diversity.
$ 22,550.00
Seniors
Council of
Santa Cruz and
San Benito
Counties
Foster Grandparent
Program
The Foster Grandparent Program is a proven intergenerational program impacting two groups facing inequities: children who are economically disadvantaged and/or have special needs; and low-income seniors. Our seniors volunteer in pre-school - 3rd grade classrooms 15-30 hours per week, providing one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, and emotional support.

CORE funding is needed for post-COVID recruitment.
$ 23,000.00
Sweaty Sheep:

Presbytery of
San Jose
Worries to the
Wind
Santa Cruz is a diverse community & home to an equally diverse network of agencies, each working as one to address social inequity. In recognition of the role of collaboration in the health of our community, our proposal promotes the power of play as a means of community connectivity by offering free sailing & art programs to individuals experiencing inequity and the diverse agencies serving them.
$ 16,500.00
Vista Center
for the Blind
and Visually
Impaired
Vision Loss
Rehabilitation
Program
Vista Center's Vision Loss Rehabilitation Program provides blind and visually impaired adults and seniors access to available resources, teaches them to maintain a level of adjustment to disability, to care for themselves through training in essential daily living skills and safe travel techniques, and to remain independent. Clients include low income, disabled seniors, across all ethnicities.
$ 22,800.00

1.67 Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
Healthy
Connections
The proposal is an integrated approach to supporting adults with a serious mental illness in achieving optimal physical health and wellness in Santa Cruz County through access to healthy lifestyle services, diabetes prevention classes, food distribution, exercise activities and peer support services.
$ 24,685.00
Volunteer
Center of
Santa Cruz
County
YouthServe
YouthSERVE supports middle school and high school students to build connections with the community through meaningful volunteer service in person and virtually, providing positive, skill building activities outside of school that promote well being, help meet school requirements and combats social isolation.
$ 25,000.00
Walnut
Avenue Family
& Women's
Center
Space for Change
Walnut Avenue, in collaboration with Conflict Resolution Center, will facilitate a Transformative Justice-based approach to working with families experiencing violence, which offers an alternative to traditional justice system approaches that commonly retraumatize and harm already marginalized populations. This program aims to keep families whole and interrupt inter-generational cycles violence. $ 25,000.00
Wings
Homeless
Advocacy
Vital Documents
Our Vital Docs Program decreases barriers to housing and health while increasing economic mobility by helping people experiencing homelessness or those at risk get their birth certificates and ID. This collaborative program will provide services to 600 people per year, also connecting them to other services as needed and doing housing problem solving with people who have no case management.
$ 25,000.00
Small Tier Proposals Not Recommended for CORE Funding (Scored Below 68) Agency Submission Name Program Summary Total Requested
Association of
Faith
Communities
of Santa Cruz
County
Faith Community
Shelter (small)
AFC proposes funding to continue operating a mobile shower service to improve the hygiene for its Faith Community Shelter members and other unhoused neighbors at encampments in our County.
$
23,704

1.68 MENtors
Driving
Change for
Boys, Men and
Dads
Financial Fitness for
Resiliency for
Transitional age of
Foster youth
Financial Fitness for Resiliency: A comprehensive Financial Literacy Service for emancipating foster youth by former foster youth and mentors. Young people who leave the foster care system at age 18 are deeply ill-equipped with services, support, and resources around personal finance to starting their adult life.
$
24,915
Pacific
Elementary
School District
Pacific Elementary
School District
Pacific Preschool, in Davenport, will provide high-quality preschool for eligible children of the North coast of Santa Cruz County and in neighboring communities. We will include a nutritious breakfast and lunch. This will help provide access to low-income families, and enable parents to work.
$
24,000
Presbytery of
San Jose Adventure-N-Learn
Due to the recent changes in education and the protocols we are reaching out to those who have chosen to be more isolated by creating small learning pods for kids based on their learning level.

We hope to build in person connections, a love of learning, and a safe space that can be monitored and controlled more.

We also plan to create connections between families that will last a life time. $
25,000
Seniors
Council of
Santa Cruz and
San Benito
Counties Project SCOUT
Project SCOUT, an agency of Seniors Council of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, request $22,000 to support free Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services throughout the county. In year 2021, we assisted 1142 clients with tax preparation alone providing $1,341,381.00 in refunds and credits, allowing for economic security, mobility, and equity.
$
22,000
The Free
Guide
Community
Education Series on
Homelessness
We are proposing a Community Education series on Homelessness in Santa Cruz county.

This program will bring together the variety of service providers, community members, and people who are homeless to educate and inform our residents on the realities of homelessness and homeless services in Santa Cruz County, and how they can help. $
24,510
The Free
Guide
Intern Oversight for
Homeless Services
We are proposing an Intern Oversight program for homeless services in Santa Cruz county that can deploy and oversee an array of interns from a variety of local schools who want to make a difference with our homeless population. The Free Guide is set up to incorporate interns from UCSC, Cabrillo College, SJSU, CSUMB and Middlebury Institute to provide and expand services in Santa Cruz County.
$
24,510

1.69 The Free
Guide
Project Connect
(North County)
We are proposing a Project Connect (North County) event, that is the continuation and reconstitution of the once yearly Project Homeless Connect in Santa Cruz. This one day service fair for people who are experiencing homelessness brings every service provider into one place so that people who are homeless can identify resources and take care of immediate needs quickly and efficiently.
$
24,250
The Free
Guide
Project Connect
(South County)
We are proposing a Project Connect (South County) event, that is the continuation and reconstitution of the once yearly Project Homeless Connect in Santa Cruz. This one day service fair for people who are experiencing homelessness brings every service provider into one place so that people who are homeless can identify resources and take care of immediate needs quickly and efficiently.
$
24,250
The Free
Guide
Therapy for People
Who Are Homeless
We are proposing for a Therapy for People Who Are Homeless program as a limited service that will provide therapy to people who are living outdoors and people who have recently ended their homelessness.
$
23,200

1.70 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Wendy King <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2022 9:57 AM
To: [email protected]; City Council; Matt Huffaker Subject: funding for programs supporting senior social safety net Dear City Manager Huffaker, Mayor Brunner, Vice Mayor Watkins, City Council Members: Brown, Cummings, Golder, Kalantari‐Johnson, and Meyers, and County Supervisors: Koenig, Friend, Coonerty, Caput, and McPherson,
I am writing to request that you reconsider your abrupt recommendations to reduce funding availability to senior services. The senior service programs on the chopping block provide the Social Safety Net for our County’s vulnerable seniors, implementing some federally mandated services. Several programs also bring in State and Federal matching funds, which would obviously be sacrificed if local matching funds are not available.

My understanding is that you recommend ELIMINATING funding to:

1. Advocacy Inc’s Ombudsman Program

2. Senior Network Services:
a) Info & Assistance
b) Family Caregivers
c) Senior Shared Housing

3. ElderDay Care

4. Project SCOUT
And REDUCING:

Meals on Wheels funding
(which recently was given eviction notice by the Live Oak School Board from the commercial kitchen and congregate dining site MoW used for decades at the Baskin Senior Center). I know MoW has been searching for a commercial kitchen for the past year or so, and that the number of seniors requesting Meals on Wheels support has increased tremendously ‐so I wonder how these services will be continued in the County.

Please consider the impact on some of our county’s most vulnerable people ‐ especially during the continuing pandemic and now the rapidly rising inflation, as well as the impact on the organizations providing services.

Why do you want to decimate these programs?
I am fortunate enough to not require senior support services, like most of you. But I am thinking about my neighbor on her fixed Social Security income that she worked hard for; I’m thinking of seniors who are one unexpected bill away from homelessness. I request more transparency in our City funding for Social Safety Net services. Why are you changing the grant funding allocations so drastically, and so abruptly? I would like an explanation of how you plan to provide these senior services if grant funds are eliminated / reduced. I would also like to know what the funds will be directed towards? I am a Santa Cruz City tax paying senior resident, and I want my city to have a strong and dependable Social Safety Net. I ask you as my elected representatives to support our Santa Cruz Social Safety Net.

Thank you in advance for your kind and thoughtful consideration, Wendy King Santa Cruz City resident

1.71 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Kaki Rusmore <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2022 10:40 AM
To: [email protected]; City Council; Matt Huffaker Subject: Service funding cuts
To my elected representatives,
I am appalled at the massive cuts in critical social services being recommended across a wide variety of areas, both in the City of Santa Cruz and the Co. While I understood that the CORE funding process would be different, I never imagined it would result in cuts to these services. My understanding was that it was intended to improve the quality of services. And I'm not sure why the City of Santa Cruz would have the same approach to programs it funds.

Please provide transparency about this funding issue, and clear information on how these services for seniors, early childhood education and the multiple services provided by the Family Resource Centers, just to mention a few, are going to be provided if the recommended cuts go through.

Respectfully, but very dismayed,
Kaki Rusmore
Supporting leaders, organizations and communities for equity, sustainability and compassion [email protected]
831.325.3459
Website
she/her/ella

1.72 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Debra Feldstein <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 12:50 PM
To: City Council
Cc: Jessica Lenth
Subject: CORE Recommendations
Attachments: Letter re_ CORE (2).pdf
Dear Members of the Santa Cruz City Council,
On behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County (BBBSSC), attached please find a letter related to the most recent CORE funding process and recommendations.

Based on the impact of these recommendations, if approved, on the at-risk community of youth and families served by BBBSSC, and other organizations similarly affected, I strongly request that you do not accept the recommendations, require that the process is revisited for this funding cycle, and request a different set of outcomes and recommendations.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to schedule time to discuss this further.

Regards,
Debra Feldstein
Debra Feldstein
Executive Director | She/Her
E: [email protected]
P: 650.468.7795
A: 1500 41st Ave #250, Capitola, CA 95010
W: http://www.santacruzmentor.org
LinkedIn

1.73 1500 41st Ave #250
Capitola CA 95010
(831) 464-8691
June 6, 2022
Dear Members of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council, On Tuesday, June 7, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council will be asked to approve a recommendation that will eliminate local CORE funding for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County (BBBSSC) for the next three years. BBBSSC was also recently notified that the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County will not renew our funding for this year. Combined, this funding represents close to 20% of BBBSSC’s budget and threatens our ability to continue to serve youth and families throughout Santa Cruz County at a time when our services are in greater demand than ever.

After years of consistent funding, we were given no reason to believe that BBBSSC would be completely defunded by two of its largest supporters. This type of funder action is not considered best practice within the philanthropic world. It destabilizes organizations, particularly those that struggled to survive during Covid and are just beginning to regain stability after more than two years of pandemic-related challenges. If this recommendation is approved on Tuesday night, three weeks prior to the beginning of our new fiscal year, we will have less than three weeks to fill an unexpected budget gap for the upcoming year and make substantial reductions in critical expenses and services.

According to the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey, 31% of youth across Santa Cruz County struggle with chronic depression, with 14% of students strongly considering suicide. The pandemic widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest, while magnifying the inequities and trauma with which so many youths struggle. Substance use has skyrocketed as teens struggle to cope with stress that has escalated as anxiety levels among adults have left many youth emotionally on their own.

The Santa Cruz County Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan (2015) recognized mentoring youth as a key component of a prevention-based strategy for positive child and youth development. BBBSSC is the only organization in Santa Cruz County that provides the opportunity for at-risk youth in our community who face adverse economic, social, and academic issues to engage in a 1:1 relationship with an adult mentor. This type of connectedness is a key to reducing the results of these inequities.

1.74 As a matter of best practice, large funders of all types (public, private foundations, and individuals) work with the organizations they support to mitigate the negative impacts of their decisions to reduce funding. Rather than fully defund a non-profit, particularly smaller organizations during an exceptionally vulnerable time, most funders give grantees a notice period to give them the opportunity to seek alternative funding sources to ensure sustainability.

Additionally, the CORE grant application lacked transparency and equity, favoring those organizations with internal resources to support a complex application process. Smaller organizations spent thousands of dollars retaining external grant writers to complete the CORE application while devoting the entirety of their staff time for several weeks to this process.

More than half the funds are recommended to be allocated to five large organizations, one that received a substantial reduction, but retained a significant contribution. If CORE was going to prioritize larger organizations with substantial resources, this represents a policy decision that should have been made and communicated in advance of the RFP being issued to let smaller organizations make an informed decision about whether they wanted to invest funds and staff time in the application process. If the funding model was to select a limited number of smaller organizations for support, this should have been communicated much more clearly in the RFP.

Among other modifications, I suggest a two step process that includes an initial LOI to reduce applicants and give grantees the opportunity to revise their proposals accordingly prior to making a substantial investment in a full application.

On behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County, we request that the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the Santa Cruz City Council reject the proposed funding recommendations, evaluate the impact on the organizations and the community of these decisions, and revisit the process and outcomes.

Please reach out with any questions or if you would like to discuss this further.

Respectfully,
Jessica Lenth Debra Feldstein
President Executive Director
[email protected] [email protected]
(650) 468-7795

1.75 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Kevin Vogel <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 1:11 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Public Comment Re: General Business Item #1; CORE Funding Recommendations Attachments: HRCSCC Annual Report 2020 - 2021 - 8-7-21.pdf Dear Mayor Brunner and Councilmembers:

This is in response to the proposal from the City's CORE Budget to provide approximately $30K in funding to the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County (HRCSCC). I urge you to oppose this proposed allocation.

As you may already know, this is a program created by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) with virtually no local accountability or oversight. Notably, as included in the attached 2020‐2021 State mandated reporting, the HRCSCC reported distributing approximately 796,060 syringes but only collecting 432,705; leaving over 350,000 discarded needles in Santa Cruz County public spaces including parks, beaches and open spaces. That is completely unacceptable. Therefore, you should reject the proposed allocation and instead reallocate these funds to other deserving local agencies that are accountable and respectful of their local impacts.

Equally concerning is the HRCSCC's complete disregard for this community's public safety leadership and recommendations by locally elected officials. Prior to authorization, it appears that neither CDPH or HRCSCC made any attempt to contact law enforcement officials in the County other than former Santa Cruz City Police Chief Mills and Santa Cruz County Sheriff Hart, who both submitted objections to the HRCSCC program. Further, the public record indicates that, after Santa Cruz Police Leadership Opposition, CDPH derisively referred to the former Santa Cruz City Police Chief as an "imbecile" and HRCSCC founder Denise Elerick made equally derisive comments to CDPH about Sheriff Hart. As to Hart, Elerick stated after Hart's objections to HRCSCC's program stating that Hart's objections were "stupidly offered and "maybe he should focus on cleaning up his department and stop killing 15 year old boys and stop having jail staff that have sex with inmates. Having him (Hart) weigh in on this (the application for HRCSCC to operate in Santa Cruz) is stupidly out of line." As you know, the HRCSCC's program application was also unanimously opposed by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and was neither supported nor opposed by the County Public Health Officer Gail Newell.

Therefore, I strongly encourage this Council to oppose any funding allocation to the HRCSCC based on their lack of transparency, complete disregard for local oversight, complete disregard for this community's public safety leadership, the recommendations of local elected officials, and for the negative impacts HRCSCC's operations have on our City and on residents of Santa Cruz County. I urge you to demand local accountability of the CDPH and the HRSCC’s operations as well as the immediate resumption of Santa Cruz County oversight over needle distribution programs which operate in our County. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Kevin Vogel

1.76 California Department of Public Health
Syringe Services Program
Annual Report
Name of Program: Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County Address: P.O. Box 3415
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
Primary Contact Name and
Title:

Dani Drysdale ; Syringe Services Program Coordinator
Primary Contact Phone Number
and Email:
831-769-4700 ; [email protected]
Secondary Contact Name and
Title:

Kate Garrett ; Managing Member / Fiscal Director
Secondary Contact Phone
Number and Email:

N/A
Date of Report: 8/6/2021
Date Range of Report
(should cover a 12-month
period):
8/8/2020 - 7/20/2021
Required - All questions in this section are required for all CDPH-authorized programs.

1. Number of people served: ~650 primary participants, unable to calculate secondary participants

2. Number of syringes dispensed: 796,060

3. Number of syringes collected and disposed: 432,705

1.77 4. Number of referrals to substance use disorder treatment programs: 27

5. Number of other referrals (feel free to break out by type – HIV testing, hepatitis C virus testing, hepatitis A/B vaccinations, case management, PrEP providers etc.): 39

6. Describe your interactions with the community (other agencies, neighbors, city/county government, etc.) and law enforcement, both positive and challenging:

Positive Interactions:

1. HRCSCC has provided numerous trainings to other service providers since authorization.

Names of providers will be left out from this report, but training on harm reduction principles, overdose prevention, syringe disposal, syringe waste prevention, noncoercive referral practices, and more were provided to at least six agencies since August 7th, 2020.

2. Upon being served with a lawsuit in December 2020, HRCSCC circulated a statement of support for our mission and work (attached to this report) and received exactly 299 digital signatures from individuals, including prominent public health professionals, elected officials, and valued community leaders. Furthermore, this document was signed by the following organizations: SafeRx Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz County Mutual Aid, Santa Cruz for Bernie, DSA Santa Cruz, ACLU of Northern California, Santa Cruz County Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California, Sanctuary Santa Cruz, The Santa Cruz Hub for Sustainable Living Board of Directors, Subrosa: A Community Space, Santa Cruz Tenant Power, National Harm Reduction Coalition, Sierra Harm Reduction Coalition, Any Positive Change Inc., West Oakland Punks with Lunch, County of Ventura Needle Replacement Program, and SLO Bangers Syringe Exchange and Overdose Prevention Program.

3. Before and after the beginning of the lawsuit, HRCSCC has received dozens of supportive comments via text, email, and Facebook from community members and other service providers sharing extremely positive and supportive messaging, thanking us for our work and encouraging us to continue our efforts. Multiple community members have reached out to thank HRCSCC for playing a role in saving the life of a loved one or themselves, and these messages are always cherished among our volunteers and staff.

4. Staff at various service providers have called upon HRCSCC in urgent times of need to deliver wound care supplies, naloxone, sharps containers, and PPE, and have shared

1.78 appreciation for our responsiveness and reliability when it comes to delivering a broad range of supplies and services besides syringes.

5. Community members and other service providers routinely stop by HRCSCC’s public service location at Coral & Limekiln St to drop off food, water, clothing, hygiene supplies, and even to just say hello to our staff, volunteers, and participants.

6. Denise Elerick, founder and staff member with HRCSCC, received the 2020 Advocacy Award from the local organization, Community Prevention Partners. CPP included this quote with the award, “Denise is an above and beyond human being with unimaginable levels of dedication, tenacity, and humanity. She leads with compassion and inspiration for those in our community whose voices have been silenced due to ignorance, Stigma, or apathy. And despite navigating challenges and negativity, she remains steadfast in her pursuit of effective substance use prevention. Denise is an exemplary advocate for health, safety, and well-being for all.”

7. HRCSCC itself also received an award from CPP, this one being the “Well Being Award” and including the message, “For integrity and passion in serving individuals with lived experience, willingness to engage in best practices and promote healthy choices on behalf of others while a public voice ardently expressed opposition, literally walking their talk everyday without most vulnerable community members and engagement as part of the SafeRX core leadership team. Their courage, leadership, and community commitment is commendable.”

8. In February 2021, The Democratic Central Committee of Santa Cruz County, the governing body of the local Democratic Party, passed a resolution in support of HRCSCC’s mission and work with an overwhelming majority of 23 “yes” votes vs only 2 “no” votes.

9. In the spring of 2021, HRCSCC hosted the Homeless Persons Health Project at its public service location at Coral & Limekiln St in order to facilitate a weekly COVID-19 Vaccine clinic in which any person experiencing homelessness could receive the vaccine.

HRCSCC received many warm appreciations for this from people who received the vaccine, some who expressed that they never would have gotten the vaccine through another avenue.

10. On May 2nd, 2021, HRCSCC collaborated with Liberty Tax and the Subrosa Community Space to host a free clinic for people experiencing poverty and/or homelessness to receive free, in-person assistance filing their 2020 tax returns or filing a non-filer return in order to receive any COVID-19 stimulus payments they had been unable to get by that time. 38 people received services from accountants from Liberty Tax who generously

1.79 donated their time that day to make the clinic possible. HRCSCC received many warm appreciations for this event as well.

11. HRCSCC has experienced an uncountable number of positive interactions with our participants. From in-person comments and conversations to text messages, phone calls, emails, and social media comments and posts, we have been overwhelmed with love and support from the people whose words, needs, feelings, and opinions we value above all else.

12. HRCSCC has partnered with the Homeless Person’s Health Project to begin providing low-barrier buprenorphine access and medical care at our exchange site. In our first weekend providing these services, multiple participants received initial MAT services and started buprenorphine. We recently surveyed our participants about this project and the results indicate that many of our participants want these services and that our program will remove the largest barriers that they identified.

13. Multiple HRCSCC members are active parts of SafeRx Santa Cruz, the local opioid safety network. Members of HRCSCC are a part of SafeRx working groups, and one of our staff members sits on their Core Leadership Team. We regularly consult and collaborate with the healthcare providers that make up this group.

14. HRCSCC has had discussions with multiple business owners located near our public service location. We have a good relationship with multiple owners and have permission from some property owners to enter their property and conduct syringe sweeps, which we do regularly.

Challenging Interactions:

1. HRCSCC is being sued by a group of plaintiffs made up of a former chief of Santa Cruz Police Department, a sitting Santa Cruz City Councilmember, and three community members, one of whom is representing an organization with a similar name (Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates) to an existing neighborhood association (Grant Park Neighbors) but the former is a different entity of unknown status and origin. The lawsuit focused its complaints on perceived environmental and health impacts from our operations.

2. HRCSCC staff and volunteers have experienced online and in-person harassment, scolding, doxxing, and general negative interactions from members of the community,

1.80 frequently the same members who oppose other services that focus on the homeless community and people who use drugs.

3. For some individuals, this harassment takes the form of transphobia and homophobia focused on the individual’s identity and not just their work with HRCSCC.

4. HRCSCC staff, volunteers, and participants have been directly harassed at our public service location. Vehicles have driven by honking and shouting profanities and have parked nearby in order to film staff, volunteers, and participants without consent. Before we were authorized, one of these photographs was posted online and a social media commenter stated that one of our staff members should be killed. On another occasion, somebody in a passing vehicle threw a large glass bottle, striking one of our participants.

5. Some of HRCSCC’s harassment and opposition has taken the form of outright lies about what our organization does and does not do, but specifically, some of the most common ones seen online are that HRCSCC does not provide syringe disposal services or encourage syringe disposal, that we do not pick up used syringes regularly in the community, that we do not provide referrals to other services, that we do not have any sort of wrap-around services for our participants, or that we do not record various types of data required by state regulations. None of these listed claims are true.

6. Two members of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the current mayor of Santa Cruz wrote letters against CA AB1344 that appeared to be related to HRCSCC’s work in the community.

7. HRCSCC’s participants have continually had negative interactions with law enforcement, and this takes the form of regular searching of their persons, homes, and vehicles, arrests for all sorts of perceived offenses, and general rudeness and dehumanization that people who use drugs and homeless individuals frequently experience. No such interactions have taken place at HRCSCC’s service location or during deliveries. We have begun providing basic literature for our participants to carry that informs any police officer of the specifics of AB 2077 and the resulting legalities of carrying paraphernalia, in order to provide support for our participants during these negative interactions.

1.81 Optional – While these questions are not required, if you have this information / data, it is helpful for presenting all the excellent work being accomplished.

1. Please provide a few sentences that describe your program, your services and the people you serve:

HRCSCC is a community-based organization dedicated to providing services to People Who Use Drugs and people experiencing homelessness in order to directly improve their health, dignity, and overall well-being. HRCSCC provides all the core services of any SSP and more: these services currently include syringe access, syringe disposal, naloxone access and training, safe sex supplies, wound care supplies, PPE, hygiene supplies, education on overdose prevention, safer drug use, preventing disease transmission, and referrals to a wide array other services. HRCSCC has also recently launched its MAT Access Points project, which gives all of its participants extremely low-barrier access to MAT and other medical services through collaboration with the Homeless Persons Health Project.

2. Describe your overdose services such as the number of overdose trainings, number of naloxone kits provided, and overdose reversals reported. ● Overdose trainings to other organizations: 10
● Naloxone kits provided: 8192
● Overdose Reversals Reported: 69

3. If you do HIV testing, provide the number of HIV tests conducted: N/A Note: One of our staff members recently received training to become a CDPH-certified rapid HCV & HIV tester, and we have been working hard on implementing onsite HIV/HCV rapid testing, counseling and effective connections to treatment. We hope to implement such a project in the near future.

4. If you collect this information, tell us about the people you serve. Examples - age, gender, ethnicity, housing status, drug of choice, etc.

HRCSCC serves mostly individuals experiencing poverty and/or homelessness, but also people with other housing statuses and people at a variety of income levels. HRCSCC serves mostly injection drug users but also a growing number of people who use but do not inject drugs, and people who do not use drugs at all. The latter two groups make use of HRCSCC’s many services that have no syringe component.

1.82 We collect demographic data on our participants only to the extent that it doesn’t interfere with services, and what we can share at this time is that the majority of our participants are white, with the second-largest ethnicity being people who identify as Latinx and/or Hispanic, and the third most common being Black. This distribution skews from the average demographic breakdown of the entire population of our county, with significantly larger representation from the latter two groups listed.

5. Please provide a feel-good story about your program:

For months, we had a participant who was always waiting for us, week after week, on Sunday nights as we arrived to set up for outreach. She would arrive with her ex-husband, both of them coming together to pick up supplies and keep each other safe. She was shy, reserved, and generally nervous. Week after week she and her husband would arrive. Gradually she seemed to gain more confidence and self-assuredness. Before too long, she would bring her nephew who was also embarrassed but she took charge and made sure he was safe and had condoms in addition to safe supplies for his drug use.

At some point, she was hospitalized. Afterward, nurses from Homeless Persons Health Project were caring for her, setting her up with recuperative care post-release. At the outset of COVID, she was living in a hotel provided via Project Roomkey. She kept arriving on Sunday nights, walking across town now instead of being driven by her ex-husband. She did not want any supplies as she did not need them any longer, she came just to help us with outreach. She would assist with collecting and distributing supplies and picking up syringes and other litter in the area. She has always had the warmest and kindest presence, and it was a true pleasure to have her around with us. She hasn’t been out to volunteer very recently, but just last week she informed us that she has acquired permanent housing in the Live Oak area and for the first time in a long time had some friends over for dinner!

6. If there is other information about the incredible work you do, please share it with us.:

HRCSCC has recorded a total of 194 “syringe sweeps” completed since being authorized on August 7th, 2020. These sweeps consist of one or more staff or volunteers walking through a specific place and picking up syringes and parts of syringes -- including barrels, plungers, and syringes with no needle -- found littered on the ground. We are required per our authorization to conduct weekly syringe sweeps, but in order to combat syringe litter in the community, we have taken it upon ourselves to go far above and beyond this requirement and consistently pick up syringe waste.

HRCSCC provides a huge amount of sharps containers to our participants to assist them in safely disposing of their syringes. We estimate we distribute an average of 100 containers per week, a

1.83 total of approximately 5100 sharps containers distributed since authorization. Along with our syringe sweeps, our consistent education on sharps disposal, and our practices of collecting used syringes through our delivery program and our public service location, we believe that our efforts constitute an extremely robust collection and disposal operation.

The Santa Cruz County 2019 study on Syringe Access and Disposal revealed that 66% of people did not have a clean syringe in the last 30 days and needed one, 75% of people surveyed reused their syringes and 29% of people shared syringes with others. We strive to reverse this trend by eliminating scarcity of supplies, and by demonstrating that we will continue services.

We also strive to gain the trust of our participants through providing reliable, non judgemental, noncoercive services that center the agency of PWUD and produce a clear positive benefit for people’s health and dignity. Gaining this kind of trust is how we have built such a large base of participants, including many who do not trust or access any other service providers in the entire county.

When educating our participants on proper syringe disposal, we encourage them to dispose of syringes in the most convenient way possible for them, which for many people is not actually bringing their used syringes back to us. Many of our participants make use of the County’s various sharps kiosks and/or bring their used syringes back to the County SSP. The City of Santa Cruz has recently placed two kiosks in proximity or within a large encampment, thus creating an easy process for disposal. We encourage this behavior because it increases the chances of proper disposal, whereas demanding participants bring syringes back to us would, in our opinion, increase the chances of improper disposal.

Encouraging people to dispose of their syringes through whatever option is most convenient likely has a large impact on the number of syringes we ourselves collect for disposal, but our concerns are with reducing syringe litter and encouraging proper disposal above all else.

1.84 Statement of Support for HRCSCC
We the undersigned give our support to the mission and work of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County (HRCSCC). We believe in the values of harm reduction, and we support the existence of their programs that are dedicated to fighting overdose deaths, the spread of infectious disease, and other harms associated with drug use.

We are disheartened by the news of the lawsuit against HRCSCC, their founder Denise Elerick, and the California Department of Public Health. Attacks on public health endanger the lives of members of our community, including the most vulnerable. During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, we all support every effort to protect the health of Santa Cruz County residents and we want to see service providers like HRCSCC dedicating 100% of their time to their mission.

The lawsuit against CDPH and HRCSCC is certain to drain valuable human and financial resources from both entities, which is likely to lead to a negative impact on the health of all residents of the state and especially the County of Santa Cruz.

We know that harm reduction is based on evidence and grounded in compassionate care. We call upon all members of our community to stand with HRCSCC and CDPH to support them and their work.

1.85 From: David Bianchi
To: City Council
Subject: Regarding CORE Recommendations
Date: Monday, June 06, 2022 1:18:38 PM
Attachments: Signed Letter to County and City of Santa Cruz.pdf I have attached a letter and plan to speak at your meeting tomorrow. --
David Bianchi
Executive Director
Family Service Agency of the Central Coast
104 Walnut Ave, Ste. 208
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 423-9444 x204
(831) 423-1532 (fax)
[email protected]
www.fsa-cc.org
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message and any included attachments are from Family Service Agency of the Central Coast and are intended only for the addressee. The information contained in this message is confidential and may constitute inside or non-public information under international, federal, or state securities laws. Unauthorized forwarding, printing, copying, distribution, or use of such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not the addressee, please promptly delete this message and notify the sender of the delivery error by e-mail or you may contact agency staff at (831) 423-9444.

PBefore printing this e-mail, please think if it is necessary.

1.86 1.87
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Bonnie Bush
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 1:56 PM
To: City Council
Subject: FW: Community Bridges CORE Funding Allocation Letter Attachments: CB CORE Letter - Final.pdf
Bonnie Bush, CMC
City Clerk
City of Santa Cruz
831-420-5035
Public Records Requests may be submitted online via the Public Records Request form, by email, or by hard copy form available at the City Clerk’s Office located at 809 Center Street, Room 9, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

Please note: Public Record Act Requests submitted via email, fax, USPS, or dropoff after 5:00 p.m. on a business day, Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays will be processed as received on the next open business day. The 10-day response period begins when the request is received.

From: Mary Mackenzie <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 6, 2022 1:53 PM
To: [email protected]; Sonja Brunner <[email protected]>; Bonnie Bush <[email protected]>; Manu Koenig <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected]; Ryan Coonerty <[email protected]>; [email protected]‐ cruz.ca.us; [email protected]; Martine Watkins <[email protected]>; Sandy Brown <[email protected]>; Justin Cummings <[email protected]>; Renee Golder <[email protected]>; Shebreh Kalantari‐Johnson <SKalantari‐[email protected]>; Donna Meyers <[email protected]>; Carlos Palacios <[email protected]>; Matt Huffaker <[email protected]>; Randy Morris <[email protected]>; Raymon Cancino <[email protected]>; Mary Mackenzie <[email protected]> Subject: Community Bridges CORE Funding Allocation Letter Good afternoon,
Please find attached a letter from Community Bridges regarding the CORE Funding Allocations asking that the Santa Cruz County BOS and Santa Cruz City Council reconsider CORE Allocations.

Thank you,
Mary

1.88 2
Mary Mackenzie (pronouns she, her, hers)
Assistant to the CEO, Community Bridges
519 Main Street, Watsonville, CA 95076
P | 831.688.8840 x207 C | 206.819.2478 F | 831.688.8302 CommunityBridges.org | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | E-newsletter Community Bridges envisions a thriving community where every person has the opportunity to unleash their full potential. Our family of ten programs delivers essential services, provides equitable access to resources, and advocates for health and dignity across every stage of life.

1.89 June 3, 2022
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors
Santa Cruz City Council
Re: CORE recommendations and Community Bridges Impacts
Dear Chair Supervisor Koenig and Mayor Brunner,
We are strongly opposed to the recently-released staff and community recommendations for CORE funding, which are scheduled for action by the Board on Tuesday, June 7th. We are respectfully requesting to appeal the proposal, as allowed by the RFP, for the following reasons.

Based on the current recommendation, Community Bridges would see a reduction of $816,778.28, or a 65.2% reduction in funding. The total loss of funding would be $2.5M over the next three years or 8% of program operational funding, which makes Community Bridges an outlier with double the average budget loss which the report stated was 4% (see Total Program operational expenses audited financials 2021 $10,730,609). This proposed reduction makes up 36% of the total realignment amount.

There does not appear to have been consideration taken regarding the impact of these proposed cuts on existing programs and services. We urge you to reconsider the recommendation in light of the way that these proposed cuts will disproportionately impact low-income people of color in South County, underserved unhoused populations in North County, and older and disabled adults with complex medical needs and their families.

While the staff recommendations are described as being both evidence-based and data-driven, the recommendations fail to include the impacts of these proposed changes on already-existing, wellfunctioning services. Although it outlines demographic impact, the substantive measure outcomes are not provided for comparative analysis, and there is no comparative analysis of the proposed new or expanded programs vis-à-vis the loss of existing services.

We must ask the simple questions of how many families will now be served under the new recommendations, and for what purpose? What are the outcomes that we expect to see in collective impact benchmarks? The answers must take into account the net impact of the loss of current programs and services, as well. Equity is not promoted by taking services from some to provide them in a different way to others. If these questions are not asked, we are pretending that we cannot see that the emperor has no clothes. We must consider this as an opportunity to rethink, change course, and reconsider another path forward.

1.90 We urge you to consider that the impact of the current recommendations, if followed, will significantly shift the safety net for the most vulnerable in our county. These changes go far beyond Community Bridges and would have far-reaching impacts to many critical direct service programs that already are providing a vital safety net to our community.

Frankly, there is far too much to cover in this communication, but I wish to share with you how these recommendations would impact our community and our agency. Here is a glimpse of some ways that our community will be impacted if the recommendations are put into effect.

Accepting the recommendations will decimate our Community Resource Centers and will result in the loss of several vital programs and services in our community. It will reduce our current ability to address the needs of 1 in 10 households a year, to only allowing us to serve 1 in 20 households locally. We will only be able to meet the complex social service needs of 3,000 people, leaving an additional 3,000 households without support. Not only must our hours and days be reduced by 50%, we will lose counselors for mental health, attorney support for evictions, after school programs and food distributions, as well as all the services for the unhoused in the San Lorenzo Valley. It puts Elderday, the only Community Based Adult Service program in our county, in a structural deficit yet again and endangers its long-term sustainability. This will also result in the loss of at least 32 fulltime childcare slots (9am-5pm), all of our Community Bridges sliding scale programs for our Early Education Childcare program across all 6 sites and will likely result in more than one closure.

The impact on Family Resource Centers/Community Resource Centers across the county will be the single most devastating change to our local safety net landscape. After, two years of fire and pandemic, during which our programs stepped up to serve CZU fire victim families and took the lead on the Covid vaccination helpline outreach and engagement (making over 4,000 appointments and 25,000 calls), it is disheartening to see that the current recommendations fail to acknowledge the critical impact that these programs had on the well-being of our entire community.

We urge you to find resources to support these programs and to minimize the impact that the adoption of these recommendations will have on Community Bridges by providing a right-sized reduction in services by allocating at least an additional 450K to maintain these services.

In addition, we ask that you to offer the community a transparent scoring and matrix map which outlines the proposed recommended changes so community members are clear about the reasons for the loss of services and the proposed services to replace them. This should include client numbers, services, and locations, along with clear alternative resources where community members can seek needed services within their local community.

At this time we ask that the Board of Supervisors hold off voting on the proposed recommendations for CORE funding until a thorough accounting can be made of the negative effects on vulnerable

1.91 community members and the overall equity in our community with the loss of so many long-term safety net services.

Respectfully,
Raymon Cancino
Chief Executive Officer,
Community Bridges

CC: Supervisor Friend, Supervisor Coonerty, Supervisor Caput, Supervisor McPherson Carlos Palacios, Chief Administrative Officer
Vice Mayor Watkins, Councilmember Brown, Councilmember Cummings, Councilmember Golder, Councilmember Kalantari- Johnson, Councilmember Meyers
Matt Huffaker, City Manager Santa Cruz
Randy Morris, Human Services Director

1.92 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Molly Touse <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 3:45 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Urgent call to Restore CORE funding to Family Service Agency Attachments: Signed-Letter-to-County-and-City-of-Santa-Cruz.pdf Hello Ssnta Cruz City Counsil,
My name is Molly Touse and I work for Suicide Prevention Service of the Central Coast, a program of Family Service Agency. We recently learned that we will not be recommended for CORE funding, a potential loss of $121,000 and I strongly encourage this decision to be reconsidered. Family Service Agency is a longtime community partner, providing low cost counseling services, services to women undergoing cancer treatment, survivors of sexual abuse, and a 24hour suicide prevention hotline to the community which includes outreach and loss survivor support.

This is a time where mental health and social services are needed, not less and the decision to pull funding from the Family Service Agency seems absolutely short-sighted when there is so much need within our community.

I urge you to reconsider.

Molly
--
Molly Touse, she/her/hers/ella
Assistant Program Director- Training and Outreach|Subdirector del Programa- Enterramiento y Alcancé Suicide Prevention Service-a program of Family Service Agency of the Central Coast |Servicio de Prevención de Suicidios
un programa de la Agencia de Servicios Familiares de la Costa Central (831) 459-9373 x3
(831) 459-6617 (fax)
[email protected]
www.suicidepreventionservice.org
Like us on Instagram! | ¡Danos me gusta en Instagram!
Check out our Facebook page! | ¡Visite nuestra página de Facebook! Suicide Crisis Line - available 24 hours a day, multilingual, confidential | Línea de crisis de suicidio- disponible las 24 horas del día, multilingüe y confidencial:
1-877-663-5433 / 1-877-ONE-LIFE

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

1.93 1.94
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Garrett <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 4:10 PM
To: City Council
Subject: 6.7.22 Agenda Item CORE

6.7.22 Agenda Item CORE
Dear Council,
My problem with CORE funding is with having whatsoever any city monetary involvement, its commitment length, lack of control, the cities tenuous fiscal position, and basically I already gave at the office, the county tax assessor’s office.

The large number of current and ex-county employees so dominate the CORE process RFP panelist list, the input from Santa Cruz is surely not a decisive voting majority deciding how our money is to be spent. Essentially then the county decides everything; the award list, writes the performance contracts nowhere to be seen here, administers them and the city then is mostly just cutting checks to the county and has little actual oversight or control. Oversight and performance achievements can be a weak spot for non-profits in general, so I do like the evidence based approach although no evidence is presented.

I don’t see other cities in the county so called partnering this way. Santa Cruz seems to be shouldering this wrong way money flow alone.

If the county wants to be in the non-profit support business, that’s a matter for them and I wonder out loud whether the county would withhold it’s contributions to these organizations if the city didn’t cough up this additional $1,080,00 in city ransom money. That’s a real question.

Note this is a 3 year commitment that extends beyond all your terms of office, approved BEFORE any budget considerations making it the premier city priority over everything else, is blind to future budgets and needs, and there is that “we’re gonna be broke” possibility coming up real soon.

In principal I question whether any money for any reason should ever be flowing from the city back to the county, we contributed already paying taxes so the money flow should be from county back to us from that billion dollar budget. You have this wrong, and you also should always 100% be the decider how city money is spent, spent only on this city locally, and recipients must be accountable to the city for city money.

1.95 2
I don’t question many of the organizations named intentions or community value, although I do see city money going to Davenport, but mostly I object to these awards going to bigger organizations with county wide even national scope with city money.

The largest awards like The United Way are respected charities, the largest in the US, but note the national CEO’s compensation was a scandalous 1.6 million not long ago.

You know I don’t really think the city should go all defective woke socialist, or be involved in welfare, especially beyond its borders; leave welfare to the County, State and Fed, or if you must, insist every cent of the citizen’s money be spent here.

Yes, I know the city is ground zero for the county cesspool of government dependence including the non-profit industrial complex’s’ dependence. You cannot assure me funding these support services here doesn’t import poverty, and you do have a fiscal discipline to develop prioritizing tax payer essential services. "Transitioning from community based approach to evidence based approach" is actually cover for a transition to SOCIALISM. Yuk.

I am wondering why the Climate Action Manager prepared this proposal for CORE funding; did Climate Action Managing hit a slow spot?
I note the Harm Reduction Coalition gets $175,000…. EEEK, that’s a lot of free addict needles on top of their other grants!
Garrett Philipp Westside

1.96 1
Rosemary Balsley
From: Jasmeen Miah <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 6:15 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Fund Family Service Agency of the Central Coast!!! Attachments: Signed-Letter-to-County-and-City-of-Santa-Cruz.pdf Dear City Councilmembers,
I am a mental health care worker in our community, and I did my internship primarily at Family Service Agency of the Central Coast (FSA). I was horrified to find out they have been recommended for NO funding for the next 3 years. I support everything they have said in their letter, which I have attached here.

FSA is an essential resource for our community. They offer sliding scale services, as well as take Medi‐Cal, helping many underserved populations receive access to mental health care. They are one of the only affordable options in Santa Cruz County, and I refer to them frequently.

FSA is also the parent program to Survivor’s Healing Center, WomenCare, Suicide Prevention of Santa Cruz, and more! To not fund FSA means possibly losing programming that supports survivors of childhood sexual abuse, women battling cancer, and suicidal residents. Even when you call the national suicide hotline, it routes you (if you are in Santa Cruz County) to Suicide Prevention at FSA.

I strongly support funding social services to meet our community’s needs. Please find a way to fund FSA, even if it means balancing the budget somewhere else. It will be tragic if the community loses them.

Thank you for your time reading this email.

Sincerely,
Jasmeen Miah
____________________
Jasmeen Miah, LMFT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
LMFT 132057
(831) 471‐7400
[email protected]

1.97 2
https://www.whenmoodmatters.com/
Disclaimer:

If an emergency arises, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. For a crisis, you can call Suicide Prevention Services at (877) 663‐5433. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor.

NOTICE: This email message and/or its attachments may contain information that is confidential or restricted. It is intended only for the individuals named as recipients in the message. If you are NOT an authorized recipient, you are prohibited from using, delivering, distributing, printing, copying, or disclosing the message or content to others and must delete the message from your device. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by return email.

1.98 1.99
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: meg s <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2022 10:16 PM
To: [email protected]; City Council Subject: Proposed CORE funding cut (Family Service Agency) Dear Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council members,
I am a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and worked for the County of Santa Cruz Children’s Behavioral Health (CBH) for over 15 years. I’m unable to attend or speak at your June 7 meeting because I’ll be volunteering at a voting poll. Therefore please accept my written communication.

I was shocked and concerned to learn that the Family Service Agency of the Central Coast has been omitted from the proposed CORE funding. Particularly at this time of heightened awareness regarding the high level of community need for mental health support, and the importance of such support, I find it short-sighted to cut funding to such a key community organization. Family Service Agency (FSA) is an umbrella organization providing essential services that include Suicide Prevention, Low-Cost Community Counseling, WomenCARE support for those with cancer, Survivors Healing Center and Senior Outreach programs. Many of the clinicians in Santa Cruz County have gotten their start at FSA and/or continue to provide services for their programs. At CBH we often refer our clients’ family members to their programs, and many of my friends have benefitted from their WomenCARE services.

The levels of depression, suicidality, anxiety and social isolation are high in our County and cut across all ages and strata of County residents, but particularly hit our poor friends and neighbors. The proposed funding cut of $172,000 could kill all of FSA’s important programs at a time they are needed more than ever. Every dollar they get goes far because their programs rely primarily on coordination of a huge volunteer base to deliver their services. I urge you to reconsider the proposal and to restore funding to Family Service Agency of the Central Coast.

Respectfully,
Meg Sandow, Psy.D.

1.100
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Eva Brunner <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 7:03 AM
To: City Council; [email protected] Subject: Funding cut to Family Service Agency of the Central Coast Dear Santa Cruz City Council members and Board of Supervisors - I was just notified by David Bianchi, the executive director of Family Service Agency, that after four decades of partnership with the City and County of Santa Cruz FSA is not allocated any funding in the recent recommendations from the CORE process. This is shocking!
FSA through its many programs provides valuable and crucial services to the most vulnerable members of our community - all free of charge. Suicide prevention, support to survivors of childhood sexual abuse, support to women with cancer support and counceling for seniors and children, these services are a lifeline for so many. How do you justify cutting funds from these programs and this beloved agency? I have been volunteering with WomenCARE for almost 20 years. WomenCARE had been its own 501c3 since 1992. When in approximately 2011 it became clear that WC could not sustain on its own, Family Service Agency took WomenCARE on as one its programs allowing WC to continue providing services to vulnerable women diagnosed with cancer. FSA was a perfect fit, and this partnership allowed WomenCARE to survive and thrive. Many of FSA's programs fundraise on their own, adding to the program budget. WomenCARE has its own fundraising events and is able to add to the budget to run this crucial program. Even through the pandemic WC has not skipped a beat providing services - because cancer has not skipped a beat.

The amount of funding provided by the city and county may not seem like much to you, but to an agency like FSA loss of this funding is devastating. The loss of ANY of FSAs programs would be devastating to our community. Please reconsider the recommendation of no funding. I trust you respect your 40 year ongoing partnership with FSA and would not do something so devastating and destructive to our community by cutting this funding.

Respectfully,
Eva Brunner
Santa Cruz, CA
--

Eva Brunner
Bookkeeping services & consulting

1.101
2 for small business and non-profit organizations
Serving since 1990

1.102
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Kay Todd <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 10:40 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Core Funding for Family Services - today’s agenda Dear City Council Members,
I strongly urge you to put the funding for Family Services into the Core Recommendations. These funds are critical for them to continue their services to our community.

Family Services provides much needed support to the diverse people in our county including youth, couples and families, low‐income individuals and a great program, WomanCare.

I’ve lived here for almost 45 years and been a health educator in this area. Family Services has always had a respected and positive reputation. Through my contact with therapists, I know they are still needing funding to serve our people.

With the impact of Covid, the CZU complex fire and world events, therapy is more needed than ever.

Please put the funding for Family Services into the Core Funding.

Thank you,
Kay Todd
(831) 239‐7783
Sent from my iPhone

1.103
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Kathy Riley <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 11:10 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Feedback regarding defunding Family Service Agency of the Central Coast programs Dear Honorable Mayor Brunner and Esteemed City Council Members. My name is Kathy Riley and I'm reaching out to urge you to reconsider funding Family Service Agency of the Central Coast in this round of CORE Funding. This organization has provided essential, life saving services to marginalized populations in Santa Cruz county for decades.

Services like our suicide prevention hotline, low cost counseling, support for women with cancer, groups for survivors of child sexual abuse and senior outreach have made a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of so many lives. Losing these services would be a huge blow to our community. So I ask again that you please reconsider your decision.

High percentages of our homeless, community members in jail and community members experiencing mental health issues were physically and/or sexually abused as children. If anything, I feel there needs to be even more services available, not less. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Kathy Riley

1.104
1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Cyd Percin <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 11:45 AM
To: City Council
Subject: Core Funding
Dear Honorable Mayor Brunner and Esteemed City Council Members. My name is Cyd Percin and I am a volunteer Friends member of Survivors Healing Center. I am also survivor of Incest. As some of my volunteer activities, I speak as a survivor. I have been doing this for over 6 years. During that time I was able to see first hand how our services have positively helped survivors of early childhood abuse in their healing process. I am urgently reaching out to urge you to reconsider funding Family Service Agency of the Central Coast in this round of CORE Funding. This organization has provided essential, life saving services to marginalized populations in Santa Cruz county for decades. Services like our suicide prevention hotline, low cost counseling, support for women with cancer, groups for survivors of child sexual abuse and senior outreach have made a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of so many lives. Losing these services would be a huge blow to our community. So I ask again that you please reconsider your decision.

I have benefitted personally from the services offered by Survivors Healing Center, a program of Family Service Agency, as have many other community members over the past 35 years who had the horribly unfortunate experience of being sexually abused and assaulted in childhood. These services are essential to the well being of survivors in our community. High percentages of our homeless, community members in jail and community members experiencing mental health issues were physically and/or sexually abused as children. If anything, I feel there needs to be even more services available, not less. Thank you for your consideration.
--
• Buddha said: “In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

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1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Sara Gott <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 11:46 AM
To: City Council
Subject: CORE funding and the cuts to Community Bridges RE: CORE recommendations and Community Bridges
6/5/22
Dear Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Council:

I am writing to you as a board member of Community Bridges, as a San Lorenzo Valley resident, and as a professional who previously worked directly with clients at the Mountain Community Family Resource Center for four years, and who now works in the criminal justice system for the past 10 years.

The proposed funding cuts outlined in the CORE funding recommendations which were released last week are honestly shocking to me. On the heels of a devastating pandemic, with inflation and food prices soaring, it is truly unconscionable that as a community we would even consider cutting 65% of funding to our local family resource centers, senior services and low-cost day care programs that Community Bridges provides. As you have probably seen by now in other letters, the demand for services at the Community Bridges Family Resource Centers has increased by 50% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. People in this county are struggling to survive. Food and rent prices are at an all-time high.

Community Bridges provides direct services and material resources such as emergency food distribution to our neighbors in need, at locations throughout the county, including in the San Lorenzo Valley. As you may or may not know, there are very few programs located in the SLV that provide direct services to SLV residents. The Mountain Community Family Resource Center currently provides direct services to the unhoused community in the SLV. The Mountain Community Family Resource Center provides weekly food distribution to community members and helps link community members with benefits such as Medi-cal, Cal-Fresh and WIC. They provide free therapy services for people in crisis. They provide eviction prevention services.

As gas prices continue to rise, and with public transportation options limited in the SLV, it is essential that we maintain services located in this geographic region. Additionally, Community Bridges truly has proven what a nimble and responsive organization they are during the past two years. During the devastating CZU fires, the Mountain Community Family Resource Center immediately stepped up to provide assistance to the SLV community. From helping navigate shelter options and insurance claims, to a mobile laundry trailer for residents who lost their home—Community Bridges rallied to provide immediate and ongoing assistance to SLV during this natural disaster. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Community Bridges ensured that SLV residents had access to vaccines and Covid-19 testing. Who will step up to provide these regionally located services during the next natural disaster or pandemic if funding is cut and this program is decimated?

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2 In the interest of time, I have only highlighted the specific needs of the SLV community, however, it should be obvious that communities throughout our entire county need, and deserve, access to direct services. I have worked as a probation officer for the past 10 years and I am acutely aware of the myriad needs in our community. All of the organizations that the CORE panel recommended funding are important and valuable. I do not want to pit organizations against each other or make judgments about worthiness, however, it must be said: Direct services cannot be the first thing put on the chopping block.

I would respectfully request that before any decisions are made by the BOS or city council, that additional information be provided by the CORE panel regarding the number of people each recommended program will be directly serving and to what measurable outcome, so that information can be compared with the number of people who will lose access to emergency food and care services if the CORE recommendations were to be approved as is. Additionally, there should be clarity and transparency around the proposed measurable outcomes of each program and additional data should be necessary in making these funding decisions in a truly informed manner.

If the CORE funding recommendation is an evidence-based process than there must be much more information and data provided to ensure that funding certain proposals over others will have a material positive impact on the health and well-being of the greatest number of people.

Please keep in mind the incredible impact that the pandemic, rising rent and housing prices, and economic inflation is having on low-income community members throughout our county, and do not consider any cuts that will reduce direct services for our most vulnerable community members, seniors and children.

As always, I would invite any of you to call or email me at anytime if you have any questions or would like to discuss anything further.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter,
Sara Siegel
Community Bridges Board Member (six years)
Santa Cruz County Probation Officer
(831) 252-0144

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1 Rosemary Balsley
From: Barbara Kelley <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2022 11:50 AM
To: [email protected]; Sonja Brunner; Martine Watkins; Sandy Brown; Justin Cummings; Renee Golder; Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson; Donna Meyers; City Council
Subject: Fund Family Service Agency of the Central Coast!!! Dear County Board of Supervisors and City Councilmembers, The Family Service Agency of the Central Coast (FSA) has been recommended for NO funding for the next 3 years. I am urging you to consider the appeal they will submit and assure funding for their services.

FSA is an essential resource for our community. They offer sliding scale services, as well as Medi-Cal, helping many underserved populations receive access to mental health care. Most of the clients who pay out of pocket qualify for the very lowest fee on the sliding fee scale. FSA is one of the only affordable options in Santa Cruz County.

FSA is also the parent program to Survivors Healing Center, WomenCare, Suicide Prevention of Santa Cruz, Senior Outreach, and I-You Vnture! To not fund FSA means possibly losing programming that supports survivors of childhood sexual abuse, women battling cancer, suicidal residents, seniors, and residents of care facilities . Even when you call the national suicide hotline, it routes you (if you are in Santa Cruz County) to Suicide Prevention at FSA.

Thank you for your time reading this email.

Sincerely,
Barbara J Kelley, LMFT
Program Director Counseling Services
Family Service Agency of the Central Coast

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Collective of Results and
Evidence-based (CORE)
Investments
June 7, 2022
County Board of Supervisors
Santa Cruz City Council

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Agenda
• Recommended actions
• Evolution of CORE
• CORE Applications Received
• Scoring Panel Process
• Funding Recommendations
• County & City Agreement
• Next Steps

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Recommended Actions

1. Approve recommended Awards

2. Approve City / County agreement

3. Direct staff to return 6.28.22

4. Direct staff to return Feb ‘23 for updates

5. Authorize City Manger to execute contract

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Evolution of CORE
Community Informed
Board of Supervisor & City Council Approved
Staff Implemented

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Community Informed
• Community Programs
• 1st RFP: Strategic Plans
• CORE as a Movement: 5 years
of Community Engagement
• Current CORE RFP: Stakeholder
Meetings

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Board of Supervisor & City Council Approved
Multiple public meetings
Board/Council approved parameters
No CORE condition, population, region nor provider prioritized

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Staff Implemented
• County / City Collaboration
• Technical Assistance for Applicants
• Recruitment, Training, & Facilitation
of Panels
• Scoring Rubric Developed by Tier
• Funding Adjustments

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CORE Applications Received
Small
(under $25k)
Medium
($25K-$150k)
Large
($150k-$450K)
Targeted
Impact Total
# of
Proposals 25 87 11 2 127
Requested
Funding $573,246 $9,265,331 $4,200,805 $1,590,000 $15,629,382 Available
Funding $605,488 $3,083,705 $1,397,807 $795,000 $5,879,000

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Scoring Panel Process
• 58 Panelists
• 86% Local Residents
• 91% Professional
• 76% Lived Experience
• Training
• Scoring Rubric
• Staff Facilitation

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Funding Recommendations
Small Medium Large Targeted
Impact Total
Allocation in RFP $605,488 $3,083,705 $1,397,807 $795,000 $5,879,00 Recommended
Funding
Allocation
$332,907 $3,138,982 $1,661,92 $770,089 $5,903,900
Total Proposals
Awarded 15 of 25 32 of 89 5 of 11 1 of 2 53 of 127

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Funding Adjustments
• Allocate unawarded money from Small Tier
allocation
• Expend all appropriated funds
• Apply BOS approved $74,900 ($25k per
year of 3-year term)
• Equitably apply 3% adjustment to all
Medium, Large & TI grants
• Senior meals carve out

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Equitable Distribution of Funds
Recommended Awards closely reflect what proposals were submitted CORE Conditions
Geography
Age
Race / Ethnicity

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Recommended Funding by CORE Condition
Proposed (127) Recommended (53)
Community Connectedness 2% 3%
Economic Security & Mobility 16% 12%
Health & Wellness 32% 31%
Healthy Environments 2% 0%
Lifelong Learning & Education 9% 7%
Safe & Just Community 3% 3%
Stable, Affordable Housing & Shelter 18% 13%
Thriving Families 19% 32%

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Recommended Funding by Geography
Pop U200% FPL Proposed (127) Recommended (53)
Santa Cruz City 26% 29% 30%
North Co (not SC) 10% 12% 12%
Mid Co 23% 18% 18%
Wats/South Co 42% 38% 36%
Other Area n/a 3% 3%

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Recommended Funding by Age
Pop. U200 FPL Proposed (127) Recommended (53)
Children <6 7% 11% 11%
Children 6-18 17% 23% 26%
Adults <60 57% 45% 43%
Seniors 60+ 19% 21% 20%

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Recommended Funding by Race / Ethnicity
Pop. U200 FPL Proposed (127) Recommended (53)
White 40% 35% 36%
Black 1% 4% 2%
Latino 51% 50% 50%
Multiracial 3% 5% 7%
AAPI 5% 3% 3%
Other 0% 2% 1%
NatAm/AK 0% 1% 1%

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County & City Agreement
• Collaborative process throughout
• County / City braided funding
• County contract administration
• Formal agreement to codify

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Next Steps
• June 7- 10, 2022: Appeal period
• June 28, 2022: Final Awards
• Summer 2022: Contract Execution
• Fall 2022: Initiate Evaluation Process

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Questions &
Discussion

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Santa Cruz City CouncilJune 7, 2022

Santa Cruz City Council
June 7, 2022