Receive update on American Rescue Plan Children, Youth, and Families Recommendation and provide board direction. (No general fund impact) (Nunes/Jakowski/Will)

Receive update on American Rescue Plan Children, Youth, and Families Recommendation and provide board direction.

Thriving Residents

American Rescue Plan Background
On November 23, 2021, staff provided an update to 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. This item is an opportunity for the Board to consider a Needs Assessment through the Yolo County Office of Education (YCOE) in the amount of $200,000 and a recommendation to consider funding projects under the Childcare subcategory in the amount of $2,200,000.  Staff will return with contracts at a future Board meeting based on direction received at the February 22, 2022 meeting.

YCOE Proposal
The YCOE Needs Assessment (tentatively being called the Roadmap to the Future) proposal signifies a collaborative effort to examine existing county assets, determine needs, and strategize how to best utilize ARP dollars and other regional, state, and federal funds toward enhancing CYF activities throughout the County. The proposal to the County is $200,000, which would be leveraged for a total project cost of $438,000, with the remaining dollars covered by YCOE. County staff have requested the $200,000 County contribution directly contribute to the Asset Map Development portion of the project. The table below outlines the proposed budget:
 

Item	Cost
Asset Map Development	$225,000
Project Management	$36,000
Research Support for Framework	$20,000
Stakeholder Engagement Session Support	$25,000
YCOE Staff Time	$40,000
Roadmap Website Development	$50,000
Indirect Costs	$42,000

This work would include two phases, the first being asset mapping and the second being roadmap publication. For the purposes of the Board and County staff, there is particular interest in the completion of Phase I as an opportunity to leverage the $2.2 million in implementation funds set aside through the ARP process under the CYF category. However, the benefit of the Needs Assessment is to also provide a long-term roadmap to the future whereby any government or non-profit agency may find helpful information that may be leveraged toward enhancing opportunities for children, youth, and families throughout Yolo County. Additional information regarding this proposal is attached (Attachment A).

Before returning to the full Board, staff met with the Board Liaisons on February 1 to discuss this workgroup recommendation. Staff is not proposing to fund the YCOE proposal at the February 22 meeting but to receive an indication from the Board regarding support of the project or not. Staff would then plan to return to the Board with a contract for consideration at a subsequent Board meeting. Any contract with YCOE would require the project to follow ARP eligibility guidelines and would include the requisite performance and outcome measures included and tracked throughout the life of the project.

Childcare Proposals
In addition to the YCOE Needs Assessment, staff anticipates bringing forth a set of recommendations for the Childcare subcategory under CYF which also had $2.2 million set aside. Staff received nine proposals that would generally fit under this subcategory and are recommending four of those proposals to be either partially or fully funded. A matrix of the proposals may be found below and attached (Attachment B), along with staff notes and recommendations for funding:
 

Proposal	Organization	Funding Request	Match	Workgroup Conclusion	Workgroup Recommendation
After School Child Care and Enrichment Classes for Children of Essential Worker Parents	Little Mandarin Institute	$30,000	N/A	Not Recommended	$0
Boys and Girls Club - Woodland	Boys and Girls Club	$250,000 annually for 3 years ($750,000 total)	NA	Consider with other funding	$0
Child Care Match for Esparto Unified School District Inclusive Early Education and Expansion Program	Esparto Unified School District	$300,000	$1,200,000	Supportive*	$200,000
Childcare and Workforce Training	City of Woodland	$200,000 annually for 3 years ($600,000 total)	$250,000	Consider with other funding	$0
Sustaining Child Care and Early Learning in Yolo County at Greengate	Yolo County Office of Education	$400,000	$400,000	Supportive*	$136,000
Caregiver Connections	Yolo County Office of Education	$115,000	$115,000	Supportive	$115,000
Building a New Crisis Nursery to Transform Capacity to Meet County Needs	Crisis Nursery	$1,100,000	In-Kind	Consider with other funding	$0
Childcare System Support/Childcare Recovery Package	First 5 Yolo	$2,560,000	$1,749,000	Supportive*	$1,749,000
YMCA of Superior California Proposal - New Facility	YMCA	$5,880,000	N/A	Not Recommended	$0

*The asterisk indicates that the workgroup was supportive of the project but not at the full funding request. The funding request and workgroup recommendation are provided in the table above.

In general, the workgroup and staff recommendation promote two paths toward enhancing childcare in Yolo County. The first is to expand slots lost due to the pandemic and the second is to strengthen the existing childcare network through direct services and resources. Several of these proposals have been discussed between County staff and the City of Woodland, including the City's Childcare proposals and the Boys and Girls Club proposal. While staff and the workgroup are not recommending these proposals at this time, with the completion of the YCOE Needs Assessment, there may be flexibility in offering new opportunities for these concepts to be implemented. Furthermore, because of the high volume of requests for this area of CYF, the Board may consider adjusting ARP funding to engage in additional proposals surpassing the $2,200,000 allotted for Childcare.

Staff has developed a presentation outlining the proposals and the workgroup recommendations. Copies of the proposals are included as Attachment C.  Due to a large amount of funding requested in this subcategory, many proposals with matching funds are not recommended for funding at this time. However, should additional funding be allocated to this ARP area, the proposals above would still be allowed consideration for funding. 

County staff do plan to bring back an ARP update on the overall plan at the Board's April meeting after finishing the remaining priority categories in March. That would be where staff would anticipate the Board can consider whether to augment any specific category such as Child, Youth and Family category by reallocating funds placed in reserve or revenue replacement. While that is the planned timeline that staff have prepared, the Board could direct staff to consider funding adjustments sooner but that would be in advance of completing the plan for all priority categories.

County Administrator's Office, Yolo County Office of Education, Health and Human Services Agency, Children, Youth, and Families ARP Workgroup.