Minutes of the Meeting with IDHS-OFVP and Maywood-Bellwood cluster, October 28, 2022

Friday, October 28, 2022, 9:30-10:30 am

via webex

Recording

Attendance

1. Candace Thier - Leaders in Transformational Education
2. Evelyn Mensah - African American Christian Foundation
3. Rita McConville - Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action, Inc.
4. R Williams - Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action, Inc.
5. Chief Jiminez Allen - Bellwood PD
6. Andre Harvey - LAC member
7. Valdimir Talley - LAC Lead
8. Lorenzo Webber - LAC member
9. Christopher Patterson - IDHS-OVFP, Assistant Secretary
10. Dana Kelly - Chief Policy Officer
11. Awisi Bustos - Senior Policy Advisor

1. Opening/RPSA Progress Overview
   • IDHS staff introduced themselves starting with Assistant Secretary Christopher Patterson, followed by Chief Policy Officer Dana Kelly, administrative support for OFVP Anna Conant, and Senior Policy Advisor Awisi Bustos.
   • Assistant Secretary thanked everybody for joining the meeting. He explained the goals of the meeting which are to provide an update on RPSA and on the recommendations previously provided by the LACs that led to the creation of funding opportunities. Another goal is to possibly get new recommendations from the LAC and community members with regards to funding.
   • Assistant Secretary provided an overview on the Reimagine Public Safety Act (RPSA) with a budget under the 250 million dollar-ARPA allocation for over a three-year period doubling down on youth development and increasing investments on violence prevention initiatives which would include street outreach, case management, and victim service which are among the main recommendations provided by the LACs early this year. Out of the 250 million dollars, a little bit over 65 million dollars have been committed to RPSA.
   • The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention (OFVP) has put out 14 funding opportunities since RPSA was enacted and a little bit over 65 million dollars has been committed. Assistant Secretary said that one of the major reasons of the meeting is to make sure that providers such as those in Maywood and Bellwood are familiar and aware of the funding opportunities because there are a lot more room for more providers. Assistant Secretary said Chicago is worth mentioning because of the overlap between Chicago and the cluster of Maywood and Bellwood. There are 50 grants released for Violence Prevention in Chicago and 28 grantees. Some of the communities where the grantees work are the areas of Austin and West Garfield Park and Lawndale and so there is an overlap with Maywood and Bellwood.
   • Another initiative is Youth Development which was released statewide with 36 grants across 22 grantees. Assistant Secretary said OFVP also wants to make sure that all of the providers who are receiving funding also have technical assistance and training entities attached to them. He added that the office understands that there might be organizations who will apply and receive State funding for the first time and so they want to make the application easy and less cumbersome. There are still requirements to be met and reports to be submitted but the office wants to be a listening office and to be a partner and so they are always looking for some feedback around the processes.
2. Local Advisory Council Process
   • According to Assistant Secretary, 16 Local Advisory Councils (LACs) were convened by OFVP in accordance with RPSA and Maywood-Bellwood LAC is one of them. Across the 16 LACs, there are over 150 members who provided the recommendations that OFVP worked on and summarized into the funding strategies. He directed everybody to the website links in the slides for the summary of the recommendations and strategies.
   • Ms. Kelly discussed the primary findings from the recommendations that were earlier received from the LACs. She reiterated what Assistant Secretary said that the LACs were valuable in terms of coming up with recommendations on how to fund violence prevention services Greater Illinois including Maywood-Bellwood. Ms. Kelly said that one of the major things that OFVP wanted to discuss in the meeting was if there are other organizations in Maywood-Bellwood who have not been able to apply for funding yet, how these organizations can apply and how can OFVP build capacity in the community. She added that the OFVP understands that sometimes people find it hard to access State funding and so the OFVP wants to make sure that everyone can become part of the opportunity.
   • There were a lot of ideas in the different areas but there were four main things that were contained in the recommendations. The first one was the need to support comprehensive violence prevention services that include street outreach, victim services and case management. The second one is 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. Ms. Kelly explained that this flexible funding differs from what has been made available in February of this year. Moreover, the Youth Development application that was made available in Maywood-Bellwood and other areas was very focused on school-engaged youth; it followed the Teen Reach model which has a pretty strict structure. The third one is the need for additional trauma informed behavioral health supports that specifically target those individuals most at risk of being involved in community violence and the last major finding is the continued investment in those traditional youth development models that may be school-based that optimize personal and educational outcomes.
   • Other findings according to Ms. Kelly were the need for additional resources to address root causes of violence including racism and historical disinvestment, financial stability and mobility of families and family violence; the need for technical assistance and capacity building resources that allows small organizations to succeed in the violence prevention space. Ms. Kelly explained that in some areas, there are groups that are doing violence prevention work that may not have the capacity to take state funding and so OFVP wants to help build that capacity. The last finding was the need for support for community collaboration and inclusive of police, healthcare institutions, park districts, cultural partners and nonprofit advocates.
   • From the recommendations, Ms. Kelly said that 4 different direct service offerings were built that were made available in Greater Illinois including Maywood and Bellwood.
     1. Youth Development Greater Illinois which was available since February, rereleased in May and currently closed. The grant was meant to provide youth engaged in school system with safe environments and caring adults to guide them toward educational success;
     2. Violence Prevention Greater Illinois which included provision of street interventions, victim services, case management and other engagement and wrap around support services for those at highest risk of harming or being harmed by gun related violence. The application close in September;
     3. Youth Intervention Greater Illinois through which IDHS wanted to provide a flexible version of kind of the Youth Development Services. It is designed to include things like mentoring, employment skills, life skills development, assistance with education and vocational programming and employment as well as other activities. It targets youth that are either engaged or not engaged in school ages 11 to 24.
     4. Trauma Informed Behavioral Health Services that includes mental and behavioral health interventions that address trauma recovery and other mental health improvements but very specifically to mediate the high correlation between family adversity and trauma and subsequent involvement in unrelated activity.
   • Ms. Kelly also presented other NOFOs that area considered supportive services.
     1. Technical Assistance, Training and Capacity Building - any organization who applied for the direct service offerings previously discussed will have access to training and technical assistance through a provider. Application is November 2nd and OFVP is soliciting applications for organizations that would want to be those technical assistance providers and provide support to grantees in the area.
     2. Continued Support for Local Advisory Councils - the OFVP heard a lot of interest in continuing bringing folks together in one council which will be renamed as Violence Prevention Coordinating Council. The NOFO will provide funding to an organization who could serve as the liaison or leader that will move forward the work and convene community organizations and youth and police and other institutions in the community when there are violent incidents or when there's a need to bring people together to solve problems. The OFVP is looking for at least one organization for every one Greater Illinois communities and application is due November 9th.
   • The OFVP also heard the need to address social determinants that are the root cause factors of violence in communities. IDHS has a lot of services that impact those areas including economic opportunity, housing, family violence and food and security. OFVP is committed to providing community organizations, likely through Violence Prevention Coordinating Council, access to training and information about how to connect folks that grantees are working with community organizations working in the communities and with partners of DHS.
   • Around 100 million dollars can be given out to Greater Illinois municipalities according to Ms. Kelly and a layered strategy was used in translating the recommendations into funding. Three things were taken into account - LAC input, provider capacity and area need. The LAC inputs or the recommendations that were previously discussed are where the service offerings were built around from. In the first round of funding that was released, OFVP was looking to get the applications out there and see how many providers in each community would be able to apply, and then get those applications in and get them funded. The first round also served to identify gaps enabling OFVP to target areas where more work and capacity building are needed. OFVP is also hoping to release service offerings around the first of the year and target areas with greater incidence of firearm violence at the same time making sure that there are organizations in those communities able to undertake the funding.
   • As previously mentioned, the first round of funding will be utilized to assess capacity of service providers across Greater Illinois. OFVP also wants to ensure that organizations have the tools to apply. In relation to the LACs, OFVP wants the LACs to revisit their asset mapping to understand what the gaps are in their communities. OFVP is also working with organizations that can help build capacity such as Ernst and Young and continue to provide trainings and conduct community organizing.
   • For the funding approach, OFVP will pursue a two-phased funding strategy that responds to both capacity and needs at the same time ensuring that funding is aligned with the recommendations received from the LACs. As the first round of funding was utilized to assess capacity of service providers and determine where the gaps are, the second round will be utilized to escalate funding in areas of high needs still ensuring that LAC funding recommendations are met.
3. Spread the Word
   • Aside from getting information about how to build capacity in Maywood-Bellwood, the OFVP also needs the help of folks in getting the word out regarding the funding opportunities. Many NOFOs are already closed but the LACs will be informed right away when the NOFOs reopen.
4. Next Steps
   • Aside from spreading the word about the funding opportunities and encouraging eligible organizations to apply, OFVP is also asking the communities to ramp up capacity building efforts to ensure that organizations are well-equipped to apply and secure the grants. As for the LACs, OFVP is asking to revise and complete the community asset map. Another step is to identify and encourage larger organizations to explore primary and subrecipient relationships with smaller organizations. Finally, the LACs are asked to continue holding meetings and keeping abreast OFVP of any issues that may arise.
5. Question and Answer
   1. Evelyn Mensah asked if there is an opportunity to build capacity in job training and placement although she wasn't sure if it would fall on Violence Prevention. Her organization provides internships and on-the-job trainings which she believes could keep young people out of trouble and keep them busy.
      • Ms. Kelly encouraged Ms. Mensah to apply in the second round to the Youth Intervention NOFO which covers what Ms. Mensah just mentioned. It is currently closed but it will be reopened for the communities sometime around the new year.
   2. Ms. Mensah asked if the presentation will be shared to the attendees. Ms. Kelly said yes.
   3. Ms. Mensah shared that her organization is currently a DHS grantee. They serve as an intermediary and they mentor smaller organizations in Chicago and West Suburban Cook County. She asked if that would be enough experience to be able to apply for the NOFO.
      • Ms. Kelly said it is a great experience and they are definitely qualified to apply but past experience is not a prerequisite for any of the open opportunities. She thinks that Ms. Mensah's organization is already well positioned to apply for the Youth Intervention opportunity when it is released.
      • Ms. Kelly shared that they are currently reviewing all applications from the different areas. She mentioned that one of the applications received from the Maywood-Bellwood area is for Youth Intervention but none for Violence Prevention and Trauma Informed Behavioral Services. She mentioned that there is still opportunity to build capacity on violence prevention in the area.
   4. Mr. Lorenzo Webber asked about the convener opportunity.
      • Ms. Kelly said that the Violence Prevention Coordinating Council was designed to be like a convener, as that of the convener opportunity in Chicago, and one of its responsibilities will be to continue convening the LACs.
      • Mr. Webber said he wants to make sure of all the information so that they can effectively share it to other organizations.
   5. Mayor Andre Harvey asked if they will be able to get a list of who were funded from their communities.
      • Ms. Kelly said yes but the list will not be released until the awards are made which is expected to be around the end of November.
   6. Mayor Harvey asked how much money is available for the funding.
      • Ms. Kelly said 100 million across the 16 Greater Illinois municipalities. There is no breakdown for each municipality because the OFVP wanted to make sure that they can involve as many people as possible.
   7. LAC member Vladimir Talley asked about the computer program that was necessary for making the grant applications. He asked if the technical assistance for the application will be in-person or virtual and if all documents and programs will be available for download or pick up.
      • Ms. Kelly said there shouldn't be any cost to an applicant in terms of programs that are required. They will have to register in a web-based system which is called CSA in order to enter the budget information. It is web accessible, and it is free. The forms will be in adobe pdf format which may pose some problems, but IDHS will help navigate alternatives to it. Further, there are no special programming that are required in order to submit the application.
      • Ms. Kelly also shared that the trainings will commence in the month of December and there will be a pre-application training so that organizations will be informed on what they need to apply for the grants. The training is being put together by Ernst and Young and will be rolled out in an online format.
   8. Mr. Webber asked about whether an asset map was submitted for their area.
      • Ms. Kelly said nothing was received but they did not actually ask people to submit the maps but to work and prepare it so when the OFVP asks for the information, they can have it.
6. Since there were no other questions, Assistant Secretary closed and adjourned the meeting.