To: Board of Supervisors
From: Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice
Report Title: Approval of Grant Award Recommendations for African American Wellness
☐Recommendation of the County Administrator ☒ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE grant award recommendations for $880,00 in Measure X funds to community providers to augment existing African American Wellness Services, as recommended by the Equity Committee.
FISCAL IMPACT:
$880,000 of Measure X one-time funds would be utilized for this purpose, using funds that have been allocated for the purpose of supporting the African American Holistic Wellness Resource Hub and existing services.
BACKGROUND:
On December 12, 2023, the Board of Supervisors allocated $1,000,000 of Measure X funds augment existing African American Wellness Services. The ORESJ was tasked with developing a plan to administer the funds. Over several months (February to October 2024), ORESJ presented progress updates at Equity Committee meetings regarding the proposed plan to administer and distribute the funds, and select the grant award recipients.
The first step of the plan included selecting and entering into contract with a local community foundation with extensive experience supporting Black-led and Black-serving organizations to administer contracting, program monitoring, and fund distribution with County-approved community-based service organizations to deliver services to increase holistic wellness in African American communities in Contra Costa County. A Request For Qualifications (RFQ) was first released in June 2024, which received no applications. A second, abbreviated RFQ was released on September 11, 2024 and closed on October 4, 2024; five applications were submitted. A five-member review committee reviewed all applications and recommended East Bay Community Foundation as the most qualified applicant. The anticipated cost of these services is $120,000, leaving $880,000 available to allocate towards grants to service providers. At the October 21, 2024 meeting, the Equity Committee received the recommendation and forwarded it to the Board of Supervisors. The final decision of award is pending the full Board of Supervisors approval which will take place at their January 14, 2025 meeting.
The second step of the plan was to implement a competitive solicitation process to select qualified community-based service organizations to deliver services and programs to increase holistic wellness in African American communities in the following five (5) priority service/program categories: Behavioral health supports; Food and/or housing insecurity services; Maternal and infant health services; Youth development support services, and; Community healing supports, particularly from trauma due to police violence. The awards were allocated to augment and/or expand existing services or programs by increasing capacity (e.g. serve more participants, host additional events, extend program periods). The Board of Supervisors indicated that while applications for funds were to be accepted for all of Contra Costa County, programs and initiatives serving East County’s most impacted communities should be prioritized. A Request For Proposals (RFP) was first released on September 26, 2024 and closed on October 31, 2024 with 53 applications received; ORESJ was tasked to coordinate and lead a participatory review process and present grant award recommendations to the Equity Committee, with final approvals to be made by the full Board of Supervisors.
The following is a summary of the ORESJ’s participatory review and recommendation process that began November 1, 2024 to select the best qualified applicants to provide services to increase and expand African American holistic wellness:
A total of fifty-three (53) proposals were submitted on time by the October 31, 2024 due date. The number of applicants per priority funding category are as follows:
• Behavioral health supports - 9
• Food and/or housing insecurity services - 8
• Maternal and infant health services - 5
• Youth development support services - 23
• Community healing supports - 8
ORESJ recruited and convened seven review panels composed of 20 participatory review panel members. All reviewers are Black community members who live and/or work throughout Contra Costa County, and possess subject-matter expertise and both professional and personal experience as educators, social service providers, mental health practitioners, maternal/infant health practitioners, violence prevention specialists, administrators, trainers, and consultants. Six (6) are County staff, six (6) work for local school districts, three (3) are formerly incarcerated, at least one (10 is formerly in foster care, and an even 50% split between men and women.
Between November 1 - November 12, 2024, participatory review panel members independently reviewed the proposals using the scoring rubric provided in the original RFP and submitted their respective scores for each proposal. Between November 13 - November 15, 2024, the seven participatory review panels each met, respectively, and shared their scores, deliberated collectively on their assessments of the proposals, and ranked applicants. Between November 16 and November 25, 2024, the Youth Development review process was extended to allow for a second review of the top-ranked applications to ensure a fair and robust review process that honored the large and competitive field of applicants.
On December 16, 2024, ORESJ presented the Equity Committee with the final grant award recommendations from the participatory grant review panel. The Equity Committee received those recommendations and directed the ORESJ to forward the recommendations to the full Board of Supervisors for their review and approval.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
The $1M Measure X allocation will not distributed for its intended purpose of augmenting existing African American Wellness Services.