Summary
In accordance with the Reimagine Public Safety Act (RPSA) statute (430 ILCS 69), the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), has worked to incorporate recommendations from 16 Local Advisory Councils with over 150 members across the State of Illinois on how RPSA funding should be distributed to best address firearm violence in each municipality. Please see the compiled report summarizing the LAC process and the recommendations received.
From these findings four primary funding needs were identified across municipalities:
- Support for comprehensive violence prevention services that includes street outreach, victim services, and case management;
- The need for a flexible source of youth intervention funding that would target a broad age range of youth most at risk of being involved in community violence; and
- The need for additional trauma informed behavioral health supports that specifically target those individuals (primarily youth) most at risk of being involved in community violence.
- Continued investment in traditional models of youth development that focus on engaging school involved youth and optimizing personal and educational outcomes.
In addition to this feedback, we heard a desire within municipalities to be connected to resources that address the root causes of violence, with a specific focus on a need for resources to address racism and historical disinvestment in communities of color, financial stability and mobility, and family violence. LACs also expressed a need for technical assistance and capacity building resources that will allow small organizations to succeed in the violence prevention space. Finally, we heard a strong desire to support community collaboration inclusive of schools, police, healthcare institutions, park districts, cultural partners, and non-profit advocates.
Notice of Funding Opportunity Strategy
To address the initial recommendations received from our Local Advisory Councils, IDHS will pursue the following strategies to meet the violence prevention needs of Greater Illinois:
-
Issue three new direct service NOFOs to all 16 Greater Illinois municipalities covering the primary areas of need identified above and award eligible applicants who have applied for our existing Youth Development NOFO (open and accepting applications).
- NEW: Violence Prevention: Including Street Intervention, Case Management and Victim Services: Outreach, engagement, and services to those at highest risk of harming someone or being harmed by gun related violence. Funded staff include street outreach worker(s), case manager(s) and victim service worker(s). Street outreach and victim services require a relationship with local law enforcement for shooting notification and response. This program area includes group violence intervention; collaboration with law enforcement; and events to foster community cohesion which were high priorities for LACs. Funded applications must provide all three levels of service, although organizations are welcome to cover service elements through subcontract partnerships.
- NEW: Trauma Informed Behavioral Health Services: Evidence-based or informed intervention services that that address trauma recovery and other mental health improvements, specifically to mediate the high correlation between family adversity, trauma and violence, and subsequent involvement in gun related activity.
- NEW: Youth Intervention Services: Youth intervention services will be targeted at youth and young adults ages 11-24 at highest risk of harming someone or being harmed by gun related violence. Programs will improve youth outcomes and decrease risk factors associated with firearm violence. These services will include mentoring, employment skills development, life skills development, career assessment, and assistance with accessing education/vocational programming and employment, as well as other activities that promote positive youth engagement.
- EXISTING: Youth Development Services: Youth development services will provide youth engaged in the school system with safe environments and caring adults to guide them toward educational success. Youth will be empowered with the social and emotional skills necessary to forge paths of healthy development and disengagement from high-risk behaviors. See current RPSA Youth Development NOFO for more details.
- Ensure municipalities have access to IDHS resources that address root causes of community violence including economic opportunity, racial discrimination, housing, family violence, and food insecurity. Trainings and other tools will be developed and deployed through our LAC partners that educate community stakeholders about how to access funding and services that target these areas of need.
- The OFVP and IDHS will deploy training and capacity building resources and will issue Training and Technical Assistance Services NOFOs for organizations to apply to support IDHS grantee organizations in building capacity to expand the violence prevention services and other related services they provide. In addition, IDHS will deploy resources to train and build capacity among potential grantee organizations so that they can successfully apply for and administer State funding.
- IDHS will leverage successful collaboration efforts begun by our LACs by expanding and making permanent their role in the community. IDHS will issue a NOFO to select one lead agency per community that can continue convening our LACs and expand the body to include additional violence prevention expertise. In addition, this entity will serve in a convening role to bring together community organizations, youth with lived experience, schools, police, healthcare institutions, park district and cultural partners, and other advocates to continue to identify the most effective solutions to address firearm violence on the local level. They will also host events and other safe space convenings to build community.
Funding Allocation Strategy
Under RPSA, the OFVP has the authority to grant up to $100M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to Greater Illinois municipalities in FY23 and FY24 to reduce firearm violence incidents in eligible municipalities (or municipal clusters) in greater Illinois. Considering this unprecedented investment, OFVP and IDHS must carefully balance three considerations when allocating funds: 1) LAC input; 2) area capacity; and 3) area need.
LAC Input: In addition to the in-depth funding recommendations that were developed by LACs and were used to formulate the content of the NOFO strategy described above, all LACs were asked to weight (by percentage) how they would prioritize the allocation of funding in their municipality under the four available NOFO service categories: Violence Prevention, Youth Intervention Services, Trauma Informed Behavioral Health, and Youth Development Services. LACs provided the following allocation recommendations:
| LAC MUNICIPALITY |
Street Intervention, Case Management and Victims Services |
Trauma Informed Behavioral Health Services |
Youth Intervention Services |
Youth Development Services |
| Rockford |
35% |
15% |
35% |
15% |
| Waukegan Cluster |
50% |
0% |
25% |
25% |
| Springfield |
30% |
35% |
17.50% |
17.50% |
| Berwyn Cluster |
|
|
|
|
| Joliet |
30% |
30% |
20% |
20% |
| Urbana Champaign |
25% |
25% |
25% |
25% |
| Kankakee |
50% |
20% |
20% |
10% |
| Danville* |
UNK |
UNK |
UNK |
UNK |
| Chicago Heights Cluster* |
UNK |
UNK |
UNK |
UNK |
| Maywood Cluster |
20% |
30% |
20% |
30% |
| Decatur |
17% |
29% |
29% |
25% |
| Calumet City Cluster |
30% |
30% |
20% |
20% |
| Bellville Cluster |
30% |
15% |
35% |
20% |
| Peoria |
20% |
40% |
10% |
30% |
| Aurora |
30% |
15% |
50% |
5% |
| Rock Island |
25% |
25% |
25% |
25% |
*UNK=Unknown. Some LACs had not provided their funding allocation recommendations at the time of this publication. We will update % for these municipalities as soon as responses are received.
As a part of the merit review process and to the extent possible, the OFVP will work to ensure awards are made within each municipality or municipal cluster that align with these percentages as a portion of the total funding awarded in each area. Adherence to these funding percentages will be prioritized in all potential rounds of funding.
Area Capacity: While OFVP recognizes that the need for effective programming to reduce firearm violence is great across our highly impacted greater Illinois municipalities, we also know that provider capacity varies across municipalities and we must maintain a focus on building capacity in areas where violence prevention services are limited. At the same time, we want to move quickly to fund all those organizations in the State who are prepared and eligible to receive funds now.
In this first round of RPSA Greater Illinois funding opportunities, the goal of the OFVP is to fund, based on merit, as many Greater Illinois organizations as possible that submit a responsive application. This means that the number of applications funded and the overall funding available will not be defined by municipality. This is meant to ensure that all equipped organizations can begin providing services as soon as possible. Each of the NOFOs in this first round will be time limited (with a 35-45 day application window), allowing us to quickly gauge where existing capacity exists across Greater Illinois and where additional funding can be reissued to meet the need as capacity grows.
During the round one open NOFO period, OFVP will also be working with organizations across the State that may not yet meet State eligibility criteria, to ensure that they have the programmatic and organizational expertise they need to apply in a future round of funding.
Area Need: From the beginning of RPSA, OFVP has taken a data focused approach to prioritizing RPSA funding in the highest need areas of the State. Each RPSA eligible municipality in the State was selected based on the rate and volume of shooting incidents occurring in each area. Looking at shooting volume across selected municipalities (see below), it is clear that the severity of violence differs across communities. Therefore, it is crucial that area need be considered as a part of our overall funding allocation methodology.
After utilizing the round one NOFO opportunity to expedite funding to municipalities and assess overall capacity, IDHS will formulate a strategy to issue additional funds in specific municipalities that demonstrate additional need and/or where very few applications were received in the first funding round. This second round NOFO process will be need-based and designed to deploy creative, hyper-local solutions to meet the needs of these high-need communities.
Overall, IDHS will work to provide funding across municipalities in proportion to level of firearm violence experienced. We will use this two phased approach to ensure that funding allocated to each area does not outpace current capacity, while at the same time building the capacity that will be needed to truly meet the need in the most highly impacted municipalities.
| Municipality |
Cluster/Service Area Total (2016-2020 Combined Fatal and Non-Fatal Shootings) |
Cluster/Service Area Percent of Whole |
| Aurora |
115 |
2.884% |
| Belleville Cluster (Includes Belleville, East St. Louis, and Cahokia Heights) |
468 |
11.735% |
| Berwyn-Cicero Cluster |
210 |
5.266% |
| Calumet City Cluster (Includes Calumet City, Harvey, Dolton, Riverdale, South Holland, Markham, Lansing) |
782 |
19.609% |
| Chicago Heights Cluster (Includes Chicago Heights, Park Forest, and Sauk Village |
201 |
5.040% |
| Danville |
138 |
3.460% |
| Decatur |
204 |
5.115% |
| Joliet |
197 |
4.940% |
| Kankakee |
151 |
3.786% |
| Maywood-Bellwood Cluster |
210 |
5.266% |
| Peoria |
350 |
8.776% |
| Rock Island |
45 |
1.128% |
| Rockford |
413 |
10.356% |
| Springfield |
192 |
4.814% |
| Urbana-Champaign Cluster |
154 |
3.862% |
| Waukegan-North Chicago Cluster |
158 |
3.962% |
