title
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE AN APPLICATION FOR A CALIFORNIA VIOLENCE INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION GRANT
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council approve a motion to:
1. Ratify the City Manager’s authorization to apply for a California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant in the amount of $1,499,917 and execute all related documents;
2. Approve the use of $1,500,000 in funds to satisfy the 100 percent match requirement of the CalVIP Grant; and
3. Approve the list of community-based organizations and other agencies that volunteered to be sub-recipients of CalVIP Grant funds.
It is recommended that the motion authorize the City Manager to take appropriate and necessary actions to carry out the purpose and intent of the resolution. Final recommendations for appropriations will be presented to City Council if CalVIP grant funds are awarded.
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Summary
Approval of this motion would confirm the City submission of a California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant proposal package previously submitted on the application deadline on June 5, 2020.
Administered by the California Board of State & Community Corrections (BSCC), and formerly known as the California Gang Reduction, Intervention & Prevention (CalGRIP) grant, the State Legislature established the CalVIP grant in FY 2017-18. The purpose (AB 1603) is to “Improve public health and safety by supporting effective violence reduction initiatives in communities that are disproportionately impacted by violence, particularly group-member involved homicides, shootings and aggravated assaults.” Until FY 2017-18, eligibility for the CalVIP grant was open only to California cities. By law, cities were required to pass through a minimum of 50 percent of the funds to one or more community-based organizations (CBOs). With the FY 2017-18 Budget, eligibility was extended to include CBOs who can now apply directly for CalVIP funds.
For eleven years, the CalVIP grant was funded annually at $9 million. With the enactment of the FY 2019-20 Budget, a one-time appropriation of $21 million was included, for a total appropriation of $30 million.
The City requests $1,499,917 in CalVIP grant funds for approximately a three-year term of October 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. If approved, the motion would authorize the previous submittal of an application with the City as the Lead Applicant. The application will define the Project Description and allow the City to enter into a letter agreement of commitment with partner organizations. The motion also approves the list of partners as sub-recipients of grant funds.
Participating community partners include California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC), Friends Outside (FO), Advance Peace, and Northeastern University Center for Crime and Community Resilience.
DISCUSSION
Background
The California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant Program was established through the Budget Act of 2019 (Assembly Bill 74, Chapter 23, Statutes of 2019) and appropriated $30,000,000 in funding for competitive awards to cities and community-based organizations to support evidence-based violence reduction initiatives.
On October 11, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1603 (Chapter 735, Statutes of 2019) - also known as the Break the Cycle of Violence Act - which adds Section 14130 to the California Penal Code, codifying the establishment of the CalVIP Grant and the authority and duties of BSCC in administering the program, including selection criteria for grants and reporting requirements to the Legislature.
The Break the Cycle of Violence Act specifies that the purpose of CalVIP is to “improve public health and safety by supporting effective violence reduction initiatives in communities that are disproportionately impacted by violence, particularly group-member involved homicides, shootings, and aggravated assaults.” CalVIP grants shall be used to support, expand and replicate evidence-based violence reduction initiatives, including but not limited to:
- hospital-based violence intervention programs,
- evidence-based street outreach programs, and
- focused deterrence strategies.
These initiatives should seek to interrupt cycles of violence and retaliation to reduce the incidence of homicides, shootings, and aggravated assaults. Further, these initiatives shall be primarily focused on providing violence intervention services to the small segment of the population that is identified as having the highest risk of perpetrating or being victimized by violence in the near future.
Present Situation
The City continued to work with community partners to develop a full application. California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC), Friends Outside (FO), Advance Peace, and Northeastern University Center for Crime and Community Resilience are partners and will be sub-recipients of funds if awarded. Each of these organizations are an integral entity on a proposed project or activity.
CalVIP Grant applications consist of four interconnected components: description of community need, project description, organizational capacity and coordination, and project evaluation and monitoring.
Description of Community Need
Based on the above, OVP’s strategy is tailored to two aspects of community need: first, the individuals OVP proposes to focus on are at enormous risk of violence and incarceration, have a personal history deeply marked by trauma, and struggle daily with poverty; and, second, the city’s long history of serious violence suggests that a robust, relentless response is needed to provide young people at highest risk of violence with credible pathways to safety and opportunity.
Project Description
OVP seeks to reduce violence citywide while also minimizing incarceration and promoting opportunity for young people at highest risk of violence - and to do both while strengthening community-police relations, particularly with the residents at disproportionately high risk of violence. The city’s strategy employs evidence-based, focused-deterrence (Braga, 2018). But, equally important, the strategy incorporates a strong commitment to violence intervention services and supports. Both the focused-deterrence and the intervention components are coupled to a nationally recognized community-police trust building initiative (Lawrence, 2019) - which is important because the population to be served “desperately needs the protection of the criminal justice system the most but trusts them the least.” As is described below, the city’s strategy is rooted in evidence of effectiveness (respectively, Engel, 2018; Lynch, 2018; and Tyler, 2017). OVP plays a central role in this strategy. Over the last two years, OVP has helped reduce homicides by approximately 34 percent and non-fatal injury shootings by approximately 30 percent. Even so, gun violence is still more than double state and national rates, serious shootings are a daily occurrence in many neighborhoods, and the risk of violence for young men of color is unacceptably high. Therefore, OVP proposes a three-step plan: 1) Reduce homicides and non-fatal injury shootings citywide. Strategically engage key community-based organizations in more quickly and effectively interrupting cycles of violence, 2) Improve outcomes for young people at very highest risk of violence: strengthen key program activities while doubling overall program capacity, 3) Strengthening the role and voice of people at very highest risk of violence in program and policy - and, specifically in strengthening community-police relations.
Organizational Capacity and Coordination
OVP is designed, staffed, and funded explicitly to support the implementation of evidence- and partnership-based violence reduction strategies. OVP’s leadership and staff have extensive experience collaborating with a broad range of public and private criminal justice and social service agencies, including SPD. The office is directed by Daniel Muhammad, a field leader in performance- and evidence-based violence reduction program design and management. OVP has 14 staff, all city employees. Four employees form the management team (the director, a senior program lead, a senior data analyst and an administrative assistant) and ten are violence intervention staff. OVP’s program strategy includes violence intervention, life coaching and intensive case management functions, all of which draw on best practice - including trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy and are tailored specifically to young people at very highest risk of violence. Almost all staff have backgrounds relevant to the work they do in the community and are informal but widely recognized community leaders.
Project Evaluation and Monitoring
As a foundation for monitoring overall quality implementation, OVP and its partners will establish a continuous and intensive focus on monitoring and responding to violent incidents and conflicts through a “partnership-based management cycle.” Three weekly meetings - each with a primary focus on understanding and responding to violence -play a central role in partnership management. This management cycle helps maintain a continuous focus on violence; the meetings closely follow each other, happening at most just a few days apart. In addition, the partners will continue to develop performance reviews as a vehicle for holding themselves accountable for quality implementation and results.
A nationally-recognized evaluation team from the Center on Crime and Community Resilience at Northeastern University will collaborate with OVP, SPD, CPSC and local community, social service, and criminal justice partners to implement rigorous process and impact evaluations of the local partnership’s efforts. The process evaluation will use focus groups and individual interviews with “implementers” and stakeholders to document program activities, successes, and challenges. The impact evaluation will involve varying evaluation approaches to triangulate Ceasefire effects on Stockton violence.
Summary note on concrete results. Citywide: the initiative partners and stakeholders are seeking a minimum reduction in shootings (as measured by homicides and non-fatal injury shootings) of five percent each year of the initiative. Individual-level: The partners seek measureable reductions in violent recidivism and victimization and will set the baselines and indicators with the assistance of the evaluation team above. Community-police relations. Qualitative measures developed through systematic engagement with the key stakeholders such as the LC.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The CalVIP Final Budget (Attachment B) provides a detailed overview of the proposed project budget and budget narrative, and an abridged table is provided below to display the allocation of grant funds:
|
CalVIP Budget Line Item |
Grant Funds |
Match Funds |
Total |
|
Salaries and Benefits |
$384,498 |
$899,000 |
$1,283,498 |
|
Professional Services or Public Agency Subcontracts |
$324,000 |
$51,000 |
$375,000 |
|
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Subcontracts |
$765,669 |
$0 |
$765,669 |
|
Project Evaluation |
$0 |
$550,000 |
$550,000 |
|
Financial Audit |
$25,000 |
$0 |
$25,000 |
|
Other (Travel, Trainings, etc.) |
$750 |
$0 |
$750 |
|
Indirect Costs |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
|
TOTAL |
$1,449,917 |
$1,500,000 |
$2,999,917 |
|
Subcontract Description |
Description |
Project Partners |
Grant Funds |
Match Funds |
Total |
|
Program Development & Project/Performance |
Approx. 2-3 days per week for $125,000 per year (over 33 months) of staff & partner consultant time |
California Partnerships for Safe Communities |
$324,000 |
$51,000 |
$375,000 |
|
Fellows: Support for Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise (HWW) and Leadership Council |
Two Community Fellows |
Friends Outside (FO) |
$190,201 |
$0 |
$190,201 |
|
Meeting Support: HWW & Leadership Council |
Four HWW program cycles per year & 20 related mtgs. |
FO |
$82,500 |
$0 |
$82,500 |
|
Participation Incentives |
Approx. 80 meetings per year (over 2.75 yrs.) |
$0 |
$110,000 |
$0 |
$110,000 |
|
Leadership Council Stipends |
8 Leadership Fellows for 33 months. |
FO |
$132,000 |
$0 |
$132,000 |
|
Administration & Support |
.25 FTE Program Coordinator |
FO |
$68,468 |
$0 |
$68,468 |
|
Support for integrated program activities |
1-2 Community Fellows |
Advance Peace (AP) |
$100,000 |
$0 |
$100,000 |
|
Integrated Activities |
Participation incentives and meeting support |
AP |
$82,500 |
$0 |
$82,500 |
|
Evaluation |
Impact and Process Evaluation |
Northeastern University Center for Crime and Community Resilience |
$0 |
$550,000 |
$550,000 |
|
Audit |
|
|
$25,000 |
$0 |
$25,000 |
|
|
|
TOTALS: |
$1,114,669 |
$601,000 |
$1,715,669 |
If successful, the California Violence Intervention and Prevention (CalVIP) Grant application will result in an additional $1,499,917 for the City of Stockton to accomplish the objectives of the Stockton Ceasefire partnership. These funds will fully support the proposed activities and staff positions associated with the grant.
Authorizing statute requires that all CalVIP grantees contribute a 100 percent match to all grant funds awarded ($1,500,000). The $1,500,000 in match funds is comprised principally of employee salaries and benefits of both OVP and a dedicated Stockton Police Department Ceasefire Lieutenant. In addition, a portion of the City’s consulting services from the California Partnership for Safe Communities will provide technical assistance and project management support throughout the grant period. Finally, $550,000 of match funds will be provided by Northeastern University and be used to conduct an impact and process evaluation lead by the Northeastern University’s Center for Crime and Community Resilience - a nationally recognized research partner. The City funded matching expenditures are all annually budgeted operating costs, meaning there will be no additional cost to the General Fund.
Attachment A - BSCC CalVIP Grant Proposal Package
Attachment B - CalVIP Final Budget