ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager and the Community Development Director with a Request to APPROVE Funding for the VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAM, in the Amount of $700,000.00.
Body
BACKGROUND: On August 29, 2022, City Council approved the application and program guidelines for Violence Prevention funding.
The application was released on August 15 and applications were due on September 9th. Twelve completed applications were received requesting a total of over $2 million.
The applications were reviewed and scored by the CDBG Public Services Advisory Commission. The scores received were averaged to create an average score on the attached file. Starting with the highest score, applications were provided full funding until the $700,000 available was allocated. The final application receiving funding will only receive partial funding.
If approved, agreements will be created for the timeframe of November 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023.
A summary of the top scorers is below: (Summaries taken from the applications.)
Dream Center - DCP Youth - $50,000 - DCP Youth is a mentoring and life skills program for students aged ten through eighteen that operates through recreational activities such as indoor sports, arts programs, tutoring and job skills training. Programming runs in conjunction with the Peoria Public Schools calendar from the time school is out at 2:30pm until 6:00pm. Students are picked up each day at their school and then transported to DCP. They receive a snack and then begin the program.
Peoria City/County Health Department - Cure Violence - $250,000 - Cure Violence, initially implemented in Chicago under the name CeaseFire, built on a broad model of behavior change embedded in a public health approach. The program frames violence as a health issue and utilizes evidence-based inputs towards a goal of decreasing violence in data identified hot zone neighborhoods. Cure Violence is focused around interrupting violence, preventing additional violence, and changing a community's acceptance of violence. Inputs include street intervention, client outreach, clergy involvement, community mobilization, educational campaigns, and police and prosecution.
HOI Big Brother Big Sisters - Youth Mentoring Program - $100,000 - The Youth Mentoring Program creates meaningful, monitored matches between children ("Littles"), ages 8 through 14, and adult volunteers ("Bigs"). In Community-Based Mentoring, matches spend time together out in the community doing activities that both the Big and the Little enjoy. Bigs are expected to meet with their Littles 2-4 times each month for a couple hours each time. In Site-Based Mentoring, otherwise called "Lunch Buddies", matches spend time together during the child's lunch period 2-4 times each month for about 30 minutes at a time. They ask that volunteers commit to at least one full year in their match.
Goodwill - Revive: Youth Mental Health Support - $78,766 - Revive, would add a full-time Mental Health Advocate to the Goodwill Youth Services team for the purpose of providing trauma-informed mental health and social/emotional support to youth across the city of Peoria. In the many years of serving youth in the Peoria community, they have discovered that unmet mental health needs are often the greatest barrier to success for youth in all of their programs. This support would decrease the likelihood that youth served would commit violence or enter the juvenile justice system.
Peoria Friendship House - Peoria Peacekeepers Network - $221,234 - Peoria Peacekeepers Network (PPN) is a diversion program designed to give youth who admit to committing certain eligible offenses (misdemeanor or felony) an opportunity to right the wrong they have caused. This alternative approach to addressing crime in the Peoria community accepts referrals from the Peoria Police Department, Peoria County Juvenile Probation, or Peoria Public Schools.
All applications can be found at the following link:
<https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6k70smkrh6qqok6/AACMYLPmLPUYuLbfKH_NIL9aa?dl=0>
FINANCIAL IMPACT: $700,000 in ARP funds will be allocated to subrecipients as outlined
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: The programs respond to neighborhood concerns of violence.
IMPACT IF APPROVED: The subrecipients would be approved and agreements would be entered into with each organization.
IMPACT IF DENIED: The subrecipients would not be approved.
ALTERNATIVES: None identified at this time.
EEO CERTIFICATION NUMBER: All subrecipients will have active EEO numbers.
WHICH OF THE GOALS IDENTIFIED IN THE COUNCIL’S 2017 - 2032 STRATEGIC PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION ADVANCE?
1. Safe Peoria
2. Financially Sound City
3. Choose an item.
WHICH CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S) FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION IMPLEMENT?
1. Reduce crime.
2. Reinvest in neighborhoods.
3. Have an efficient government.
DEPARTMENT: Community Development