Receive an update on the American Rescue Plan Children, Youth, and Families and approve recommendations from the workgroup and provide board direction. (No general fund impact) (Pinedo/Jakowski/Lewis/York)

On November 23, 2021, staff updated the Board regarding the five American Rescue Plan (ARP) priority category workgroups, including the Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) workgroup. Since that meeting, Staff has met with the workgroup and the Board liaisons to discuss several items under the subcategories approved by the Board in November 2021. The Child, Youth and Family workgroup was allotted $5.5 million dollars of ARP funding and further allocated those funds as follows:

On February 22, 2022, the Board received a presentation on the CYF workgroup project recommendations and approved the projects being recommended at that time.

The present item is an opportunity for the Board to consider funding the remaining gap for the Yolo Basic Income Program (YOBI) pilot in the amount of $550,000 through the Equity subcategory, support the RaiseAChild project in the amount of $50,000 through the Child Welfare subcategory, and to receive an update on the YCOE Needs Assessment. 
 
Yolo Basic Income Program (YOBI)
Yolo County HHSA launched a first-in-the-nation basic income supplement program for 76 of the lowest-income and most vulnerable homeless families on CalWORKs. The 24-month program provides additional cash benefits to 76 families pulling that family's total income $1 over the California Poverty Measure. Families continue to receive full CalWORKs HSP case management services. The $550,000 from the ARP CYF priority category will help fund the gap necessary to complete this pilot program in full. 

The funding of $50,000 for RaiseAChild will support the recruitment of new Resource Families for children and youth in foster care through ad buys, follow-up with potential resource parents, hosting recruitment events, supporting inquiries made directly to the County from potential Resource parents, and follow-up with attendees at recruitment events. RaiseAChild targets a variety of communities and resource families needing critical support, including but not limited to LGBTQIA, Black, Latino, and single adults, and provides support and encouragement to transition potential resource families to the application stage. Other services that RaiseAChild can provide Yolo County range from immediate assistance with staffing shortages to increased recruitment efforts and recruitment results within weeks.

The YCOE Needs Assessment signifies a collaborative effort to examine existing county assets, determine needs, and strategize how best to utilize ARP dollars and other regional, state, and federal funds toward enhancing services, supports, and activities for children, youth, and families throughout the County. YCOE received $200,000 at the February 22, 2022, meeting to contribute to the Asset Map Development. Below is an update on the status of the project. 

Milestone 1: Development of Roadmap Contracts: March 2022 - December 2022 (multiple partners)
Milestone 2: Publicly Available Data Collection: March 2022 – June 2023
Milestone 3: Development or Adoption of Youth Development Framework: October 2022 – June 2023
Milestone 4: First Community Engagement Sessions Completed "Nexus Asset Maps Review and Asset/Opportunity Discussions": February 2023
Milestone 5: Completion of initial Asset Mapping activities with preliminary report out: February 2023

The Yolo County Office of Education is currently interviewing local partners to assist with work to complete the Roadmap to the Future, in addition to the Concordia (the original project consultant). Once these contracts are complete, the Yolo County Office of Education would like to work with Yolo County to update the contract between our agencies to reflect the new language we are using to describe tasks and the new timeline.