To: Board of Supervisors
From: Anna Roth, Health Services Director
Report Title: Contract #74-682 with A.B.L.E. Community Development Foundation (for the Contra Costa Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition)
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Health Services Director, or designee, to execute on behalf of the County Contract #74-682 with A.B.L.E. Community Development Foundation (for the Contra Costa Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition), a non-profit corporation, in an amount not to exceed $250,000, to provide community health worker certification trainings, community outreach and mental wellness education for Southeast Asian (SEA) community for the period January 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of this contract will result in budgeted expenditures of up to $250,000 and will be funded 100% by Mental Health Services Act (MHSA).
BACKGROUND:
This contract meets the social needs of County’s population by providing culturally based mental well-being support and a training program through the MHSA Community Defined Practices Project grant to empower participants with techniques to identify specific stress factors and their impact on the body, as well as provide tools to manage and control stress effectively. This proactive approach enables individuals to gain control over stress before it escalates into anxiety or depression. This contract is entered into under and subject to the following legal authorities: California Government Code §§ 26227 and 31000. This contract was approved by Health Services Personnel to ensure there is no conflict with labor relations.
This provider was selected in collaboration with community stakeholder advisory bodies and was approved as part of the comprehensive MHSA Three-Year Plan as required by State regulation. Providers interested in providing specialized services were invited proactively to participate in program development and offered the opportunity to submit interest at dozens of publicly noticed meetings. The services and vendors were identified in the formal Three-Year plan was approved on the following schedule that was noticed to the public and approved by the Board on August 1, 2023. The Three-Year Plan was posted for public comment from June 5, 2023 through July 5, 2023, there was a Public Hearing at the Mental Health Commission meeting on July 5, 2023, and it was approved by the Board of Supervisors on August 1, 2023.
Under new Contract #74-682, this contractor will provide community health worker certification trainings, community outreach and mental wellness education to the SEA community for the period January 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. This contract is late due to the lengthy selection process which took longer than the Division anticipated.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If this contract is not approved, mental well-being support and the community health worker certification training program will not be available to an underserved SEA community, possibly leading to reduced levels of service to the community and potential placement in higher levels of care.