Approve award of Local Innovation Subaccount: Safe Communities Program Innovation Grants of $114,488 to Brown Issues to provide school-site based programming and a community-centered approach specifically targeting LatinX youth and authorize the County Administrator to enter into an agreement with Brown Issues for a not-to-exceed amount of $114,488. (No general fund impact) (Cook/Will)

1. Approve award of $114,487.50 from the Local Innovation Subaccount: Safe Communities Program Innovation Grant to Brown Issues to provide school-site based programming and a community-centered approach specifically targeting LatinX youth; and
    
2. Authorize the County Administrator to enter into an agreement with Brown Issues for a not-to-exceed amount of $114,487.50.

	Thriving Residents
	Safe Communities

The Local Innovation Subaccount is a public safety fund mandated by the State as part of the Public Safety Realignment of 2011. In 2016, the Board of Supervisors chose to allocate the revenues from the fund in the form of the Safe Communities Program Innovation Grant. This grant is meant to assist County departments and partner Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to launch innovative pilot programs, or provide innovative services in a 1-2 year time period. Under County policy, a priority focus is recommended annually by the Local Innovation Subaccount Ad Hoc Subcommittee, and approved by the Board of Supervisors. The priority focus for FY 2020-21 is "Evidence-based strategies or programs preventing youth entry into the criminal justice systems". Examples of this focus area may include, but are not limited to, strategies or projects/programs that:
 

• Explore and identify best practices in prevention programs utilizing the “family model”
• Examine the availability of parenting programs and supportive services
• Implement research-based prevention and educational programs that reduce crime

This priority focus supports the Board's 2020-2025 Strategic Plan under the Goals of Thriving Residents and Safe Communities. Furthermore, strategies and/or projects/programs in this category have been identified by the Community Corrections Partnership as essential to improving the County's criminal justice system. This priority focus was previously approved by the Board of Supervisors at the March 23, 2021 meeting.

This Subaccount is unique in that expenditure is at the sole discretion of the Board of Supervisors and not required to adhere to the standard Community Corrections Partnership funding processes. Ten percent of the annual allocation of the following four local growth accounts created in the 2011 package create the Subaccount:

1. Trial Court Security Growth Special Account
2. Juvenile Justice Growth Special Account
3. District Attorney and Public Defender Growth Special Account
4. Community Corrections Growth Special Account

In May 2016, the Board approved a policy that established a process for allocation of the Local Innovation Subaccount funds through the creation of a “Safe Communities Program Innovation Grant” (see Attachment A). Through this grant, County staff and CBOs that provide services to justice-involved populations have the opportunity to innovate with the use of these funds. A Local Innovation Subaccount Ad Hoc Subcommittee comprised of the Board Supervisors from Districts 3 and 4 was created to assist with oversight. A priority focus theme is to be established for each application cycle, and all grant funding requests must meet a permissible use related to one of the four local growth accounts (which are detailed in Attachment A). After the application period has ended, the applications are reviewed by an interdisciplinary scoring panel. The panel then offers their recommendation to the Local Innovation Subaccount Ad Hoc Subcommittee, before presentation to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

Past Safe Communities Program Grant Awards
Since the beginning of this grant in 2016, there have been four awards given by the Board of Supervisors. The first award of $33,992 in FY 2016-17 was given to the Yolo County Sheriff's Office to fund a study and the development of a statement of work for a criminal justice and behavioral health information sharing project. Since the Sheriff's Office was concurrently awarded technical assistance from the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute for the project, in April 2018 the Board approved the funds to be carried forward to fund a contract with an IT project manager consultant to carry out the task plan produced by IJIS.

The second award of $115,000 in FY 2017-18 was given to the Yolo County Probation Department, in conjunction with the Yolo County Office of Education, to assist incarcerated youth transition from custody to the community with a one-on-one mentor, through a contract with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. This contract ended in June 2021 after three years of service. The Probation Department has subsequently collected outcome and performance measurement data for this program.

The third and fourth awards were granted in FY 2018-19 to CommuniCare Health Centers and Fourth and Hope. CommuniCare received $26,775.25 to fund a car for reentry services, while Fourth and Hope received $58,227.25 to reserve rooms and provide outpatient substance use disorder treatment services to clients on probation.

Recommended Actions
The Local Innovation Subaccount Ad Hoc Subcommittee recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve the grant panel recommendation, which would award $114,487.50 to Brown Issues to provide school-site based programming and a community-centered approach with three main goals:

• Address young people's social-emotional health needs through school-site, advocacy, and leadership-based programming by Brown Issues advisor
• Engage parents and caretakers in the development of the students' personal and academic success through home visits and parent engagement
• Invest in the future aspirations of our young people, such as college readiness and career development opportunities that ultimately increase one's life outcomes
   

This project fits into the permissible uses under the Safe Communities Program Innovation Grant policy and addresses the priority focus. Staff also recommends authorizing the County Administrator to enter into an agreement with the applicant for the purpose and award amounts outlined in the grant panel recommendation.

County Administrator's Office, Health and Human Services Agency, Probation Department.

The County released a RFP for this process on March 30, 2021 and closed the process on April 23, 2021. Only one proposal was received during this time and staff from HHSA, Probation, and the CAO conducted a review panel, recommending the proposal be moved forward to the next step in the process.