Fiscal Note
The proposed resolution accepts a staff report from the Community Development Division (CDD) regarding peer support interventions as a violence prevention strategy. The report outlines the process that will be used as the basis for a competitive request for proposal (RFP) process awarding funds to community organization to providing peer support programming. This will be the City’s first RFP process for this program area.
The 2017 Adopted Operating Budget includes $400,000 for this process. Legistar file id 47574, adopted by the Common Council on June 20th, authorized utilizing $75,000 of this appropriation for a contract with Nehemiah and the Focused Interruption Coalition to provide peer support services to persons or households impacted by acts of violence ($50,000) and funding administered by CDD for rapid response and direct aid to victims of violence ($25,000). Due to the timing of the RFP, recommendations from the process authorized by this resolution will be used to award funding in CDD’s 2018 operating budget.
Title
Accepting the Community Development Division staff paper entitled, “Peer Support Initiative 2017” as the basis for developing a Request for Proposals and authorizing CDD to undertake that process in 2017 to allocate funds authorized by the Common Council for use beginning in 2017.
Body
WHEREAS, the Community Development Division, in consultation with the Community Services Committee, is responsible for formulating recommendations to the Mayor and Common Council regarding the use of City resources budgeted for community services that are purchased by the City from private, non-profit agencies; and
WHEREAS, the 2017 Adopted Operating Budget includes $400,000 within the Community Development Division to support one or more purchased service contracts to implement a Peer Support initiative that is intended to achieve two distinct goals; reducing the rate of recidivism on the part of persons returning to the community following a period of incarceration and, reducing incidences of violence on the part of persons deemed at risk of engaging in violent or criminal behavior; and
WHEREAS, CDD staff, in consultation with the Mayor, Common Council members and others have developed a Peer Support Staff Paper that outlines the parameters of two program models, one that utilizes contacts with the emergency health care system as a primary point of referral for peer support services, and another that utilizes a more traditional community re-entry process following incarceration; and
WHEREAS, in order to gather community input to inform the development of the Peer Support Initiative, CDD contracted with Equity by Design to conduct a series of focus groups and interviews involving community stakeholders, potential vendors, and residents that might benefit from the described services to gather feedback on the staff paper; and
WHEREAS, the feedback gathered from the focus groups offered valuable input that will be considered in the development of a final RFP document, for release in August, that will be used to solicit proposals and allocate resources to potential service providers.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Common Council accepts the Community Development Division staff paper entitled “Peer Support Initiative 2017” as the basis for developing a Request for Proposals process, and authorizes CDD to undertake that process in 2017 to allocate funds designated by the Common Council for use beginning in 2017.