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C;tYaf City Council Report
Santa Monica'
City Council Meeting: November 22, 2011
Agenda Item: 8-C-
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Barbara Stirichfield, Community and Cultural Services Director
Subject: Proposed Next Steps to Support the City's Youth Resource Team Policy
Group
Recommended Action
Staff recommends: that the City Council:
1. Review and comment on the work of the Youth Resource Team Policy Group.
2. Direct staff to proceed with YRT next steps.
3. Authorize the budget changes as outlined in the Financial Impacts and Budget
Actions section of this report.
Executive Summary
This report summarizes the background and progress of the Youth Resource Team
(YRT) Policy Group since its inception in 2010. It offers a brief snapshot of the City's
2011 -2012 Youth Budget ($38M); describes the local impacts of state cuts to early
childhood and afterschool childcare funding, and proposes uses for $150,000 of the
$330,088 in one time General Fund reserve funds. This funding will assist the City,
Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) and community stakeholders in
planning for continued reductions to state early childhood and school -age child care
programs and focus the efforts of the YRT on positioning Santa Monica and its partners
to better define, improve, sustain and enhance "cradle to career" initiatives over the long
term.
Background
On September 14, 2010 the Council adopted a report, Youth Violence Prevention in
Santa Monica: An Action Plan for 2010 and 2011 including its vision statement, core
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values, and action steps. At that time, the Council directed the formation of the Youth
Resource Team (YRT) Policy Group to advance the City and community's efforts to
address youth violence prevention including reviewing the effectiveness of current
programs and activities, establishing priorities, timelines and benchmarks to measure
success of the Action Plan; providing periodic progress updates to the Council. Council
appropriated $25,000 for facilitation and part time administrative support for the YRT.
On April 12, 2011, the co- chairs of the YRT Policy Group, a diverse group of over 25
leaders from non - profit, school, business, neighborhood, and faith organizations,
updated the Council on the progress of its work, and subsequently updated the
SMMUSD Board of Education (June 2011) and SMC Board of Trustees (July 2011).
The updates centered on the YRT's overarching goal, "Through collective impact, we
will sustain the country's most effective `cradle to career' network which will facilitate
healthy child and youth development." The YRT called for a new level of interagency
partnership between the City, SMMUSD, and SMC to achieve this goal. In July 2011,
the YRT distributed a preliminary data report, providing summary and analysis of key
data sources. These include the 2010 US Census data, various SMMUSD student
survey and achievement results, local housing statistics, SMPD crime data, and County
health and probation data. The YRT also promoted the launch of a new one stop "youth
web portal" www.santamonicaVouth.net which provides accessible information for
parents, youth, educators, and social service providers, thereby beginning to address
the longstanding complaint that local resources are fragmented, hard to find and
therefore, not fully used.
On June 21 2011 Council adopted the FY 2011 -13 Budget, which includes funding in
many City departments for programs for children, youth and families in Santa Monica.
The City's Youth Budget commits over $38M of General Fund resources allocated to
City afterschool, recreation, library and other community service programs ($21.6M). In
addition the City provides support to the SMMUSD ($13.7M) and grants to school and
community -based programs ($2.7M). Further, the Council set aside $330,088 in one
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time funds to address the impact of state funding cuts on early childhood programs,
which were inconclusive at that time. The Council expressed intent to ensure that local
programs, particularly those supporting low income children, be protected and
requested that staff develop recommendations regarding possible uses for one time
funding once the state funding situation became more certain.
The City of Santa Monica, the SMMUSD, SMC, the business community, neighborhood
and civic groups, community -based non - profit organizations and residents have
repeatedly demonstrated a deep commitment to education, early childhood programs,
youth development and family resources. The YRT has identified a need to better
quantify the impacts of these efforts, to ensure that those most in need are benefiting
from them and clearly link early childhood efforts to the continuum of youth and family
services in the community. This includes reaching those who are low income, lack
affordable housing, are not ready for school, have disabilities, are non - native English
speakers, are facing family or community violence, lack healthcare access, or are
otherwise marginalized within the larger community.
Discussion
Local Impacts of State Early Childhood and School -Age (Afterschool) Childcare
Funding: The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) through its Child
Development Services (CDS), and Connections For Children (CFC) receive most of
Santa Monica's $6.4M in state childcare funds. CDS and CFC together receive a total of
$8.3M in State childcare funding, although not all is used for Santa Monica families.
State reductions to early childhood programs implemented on July 1, 2011 were
anticipated at 15 %, but were realized at closer to 11 %. However, with State revenues
lower than anticipated, additional cuts to child care programs may be forthcoming in
January 2012 if Proposition 98 "triggers" are set in motion. Their extent is unknown at
this time and will depend in part on upcoming holiday sales tax revenues, with a worse -
case scenario involving a reduction retroactive to July 1, 2011. City staff has followed
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up with each agency to better understand what is known and anticipated regarding the
impacts of these funding reductions.
SMMUSD's CDS directly operates a range of pre - school and school age afterschool
child care programs for approximately 1,600 children in Santa Monica and Malibu.
Annually the SMMUSD receives approximately $2.8M in state child care funding to pay
for the tuition of low income children in these programs. Anticipating state funding cuts
and in order to preserve some services and retain staff, the SMMUSD agreed to take
over several federally funded Head Start contracts which largely supplanted the state
funding cuts of just under $350,000. The new Head Start funding necessitated that
CDS restructure some of its staffing and recruit new children, which is still underway.
Connections For Children, the local agency responsible for administering state funds to
low income families for child care tuition subsidies, has lost almost $480,000 in funding
(from a total of $5.5 M), almost entirely used to serve children outside of Santa Monica.
If the budget reduction "triggers" are implemented in January 2012, CFC predicts its
funding will be reduced by another $60,000 in total, of which Santa Monica would lose
up to $20,000, impacting child care for six Santa Monica children.
Given SMMUSD's current enrollment in its early childhood programs, a small reduction
in funding may not have much impact, but larger state cuts could hurt early
childhood and school age child care programs more significantly. Within Santa Monica,
the SMMUSD's afterschool child care program is offered in partnership with the City of
Santa Monica through the CREST (Childcare, Recreation, Enrichment, Sports
Together) Program. The SMMUSD operates before and after school child care for
grades kindergarten through third, while the City provides child care for fourth and fifth
grades, enrichment classes for K -5, playground oversight (1 -5), and Sports (K -8). A
significant portion of children attending CREST programs receive subsidies, which are
state funded for SMMUSD's CREST child care program and City funded for those in
City operated portions of CREST. Hence, significant reductions in state child care
funding could significantly hinder the SMMUSD's operation of CREST and therefore,
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impact the overall City /SMMUSD partnership. It is therefore important to the City,
SMMUSD and community that the potential ramifications and consequences for both
school age (CREST) and pre - school programs be considered and alternative
approaches which can be sustained over time, be considered.
Youth Resource Team Next Steps: The YRT Policy Group has been focused on the
following over the past six months:
How To Measure Citywide Success: Recognizing the need for a community
measurement tool to define and track collective impact on young children and
youth, the YRT Policy Group has set about to develop the first youth report card.
With outcomes from infancy to adulthood in areas of physical health, social
competency, academic achievement and emotional wellness, the report card will
include several dozen measurements with data from the SMMUSD, SMC, City,
County of LA, and community groups. After concluding gathering feedback from
community and institutional stakeholders in December, the YRT hopes to release
Santa Monica's first youth report card in February 2012.
Function and Structure of YRT: The Council's direction last year to convene and
set an initial role for the YRT Policy Group was instrumental in addressing the
need for sanctioned, sustained and focused participation by a cross section of
key community and institutional leaders to take stock of the many youth
programs within Santa Monica. A smaller "executive group" of the YRT Policy
Group has been considering options for the role of the group going forward. In
reviewing best practices and research from other communities, the YRT was
particularly inspired by a Stanford Innovation article called, Collective Impact,
(Winter 2011), which highlights the impressive, highly collaborative interagency
work in other parts of the country. The researchers identified the importance of
establishing a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing
activities, continuous communication and a back bone support organization. With
a plethora of existing SMMUSD, SMC, City and nonprofit agency children and
youth projects, long term success will require the YRT Policy Group to clearly
articulate its own functions and delineate a sustainable structure to move
forward. To significantly increase effectiveness of the many independent
programs within Santa Monica, it will be necessary to define common
interagency goals and outcomes, with clear strategies for integration of funding,
marketing /communication and program development and evaluation.
Proposed Uses of $150,000 in One Time Funds: The $330,088 set aside by the
Council in June is one time funding. State childcare funding is for program operations
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and therefore mitigating any cuts would require ongoing funding. Further, the extent
and details of the state cuts remain unclear and likely will not be fully known until 2012
when various state budget actions are resolved. It is likely that there will be additional
deeper cuts in subsequent years. Therefore, at this time, staff recommends partial use
of one time funds, focused on activities which will position Santa Monica and its
partners to sustain and improve "cradle to career" initiatives over the long term, with an
eye towards enhancing public - private partnerships, reducing duplication, improving
resource integration and coordination, identifying the most effective service delivery
models, and looking for new sources of funding. To achieve, this staff is recommending
using one -time funds for:
Program assessment and developing options for Santa Monica's early childhood
and school age child care programs in light of diminishing state resources. This
will be conducted jointly between SMMUSD, City and other relevant community
partners and should include looking at demand in Santa Monica, review of best
practices, assessment of cost effective and sustainable models. The project
would include a review of existing programs currently offered through SMMUSD
CDS; the City (directly operated or grant funded), Connections For Children, and
may also include work with SMC as it plans for the new Early Childhood Center
to be built in the Civic Center area. ($40,000 - $60,000 Estimated)
Facilitation, fund development and planning consulting services to work with the
YRT Policy Group to refine its function and structure. This may include
developing federal and foundation funding proposals to augment and build upon
the City's Youth Budget, and other organizations' existing programs and funding.
($50,000 Estimated)
Research, development of scope, planning and cost estimating for data
system(s) to better serve the public and measure results of the system of youth
services in Santa Monica. This will support the work of the YRT to produce an
annual report card as well to better track and measure services and outcomes for
young children and youth, similar to the homeless information management
system. Planning for a new, as of yet unfunded, data system(s) will consider and
incorporate all appropriate standards protecting confidentiality, will explore
linkages to City registration systems, borrow from best practices in other
communities regarding use of "dashboards" and other means to create an
interface between computer and data management system of partner agencies.
($40,000 Estimated)
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Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
The FY11 -13 adopted budget includes $330,088 in one -time discretionary funds for use
pending state budget impacts on early childhood development. Funds of $150,000
need to be released from the General Fund reserve designation account 1.370326 and
appropriated to expenditure account 0126210.555060 to support recommendations as
outlined in this report. Additional allocations may be recommended when the state
budget picture becomes more certain.
Prepared by: Julie Rusk, Human Services Manager
Patty Loggins, Human Services Administrator
Robin Davidson, Human Services Administrator
roved:
Barbara Stinchfield
Director of Community & Cultural
Services
VA
Forwarded to Council:
Rod Gould
City Manager