CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the proposed CY2023 Social Services Grant funding allocations
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DEPARTMENT: Community Services
SUBMITTED BY: Shebnem Ozkaptan, Budget/Administrative Services Coordinator
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The City Council established a $250,000 Social Services Grant (SSG) program in 2005 to enhance the ability of local not-for-profit agencies to provide needed services to the community. In 2012, the Council increased funding to $300,000 to allow for a $50,000 set-aside for projects that target current specific community needs. Grant funding was increased to $500,000 in 2015, and remains today, using a portion of the Food and Beverage Tax funds.
Based on Council input from the Calendar Year 2022 process, as well as a follow-up meeting with Councilmembers Gustin and Leong in April, staff made the following changes to the 2023 application review process:
1. Increased the City Council allocation from $50,000 to $100,000
2. Removed low/mod income as a scoring criteria
3. Discarded the low and high scores for each application
4. Added a representative from D203 [D204 declined due to a conflict of interest]
5. Added a non-scoring councilmember [Councilwoman Gustin]
DISCUSSION:
The City received 38 requests totaling $1,340,901 for the CY2023 funding year. Of those, 27 projects had previously received SSG funding.
A team of City staff from the Community Services Department and representatives from the Human Rights and Fair Housing Commission, Senior Task Force, District 203, and Councilwoman Gustin reviewed the applications and allocated $400,000 in funds. This amount is reserved for agencies that provide services addressing one of the program’s five general funding priorities listed below.
SSG Funding Priorities
1. Emergency Services
Emergency shelter, food and personal care items, and emergency assistance
2. Seniors
Respite care, meal delivery, home sharing, mental health counseling
3. Self-Sufficiency
Financial counseling, education, childcare, employment services, and substance abuse services
4. Special Populations
Persons with physical, developmental or mental health disabilities
5. Youth
Mentoring, counseling, pregnancy prevention/education
After ensuring the request fulfilled a funding priority, the reviewers scored each application on a 100-point scale against criteria listed below and made funding recommendations based on the resulting point scores.
Scoring Criteria
Applications are evaluated based on the following seven criteria:
1. Project goals and objectives are clear, measurable, realistic, and address the program priorities and documented community need.
2. Project need and community benefit are justified and fully documented.
3. The project provides a new or improved service to the target population that does not duplicate existing services and encourages collaboration with other organizations.
4. The project provides services to Naperville residents conveniently and in sufficient numbers or provides crucial services to a subset of Naperville residents.
5. The applicant has sufficient experience, resources and staffing to successfully implement the project within a one-year timeframe and can manage the grant, including documentation of benefits, compliance and reporting.
6. The applicant has made efforts to secure other funding for the activity.
7. Completeness of the application.
The remaining $100,000 is reserved for councilmembers to propose allocations to initiatives of their choice. Projects receiving a majority of Council support were awarded the average of the individual councilmember allocations. The average was then added to the Review Team’s recommendation for a total applicant award.
FISCAL IMPACT:
$500,000 from annual Food and Beverage Tax revenue will be allocated to Social Services Grant recipients.