CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the proposed CY 2021 Social Services Grant funding allocations
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DEPARTMENT: City Clerk’s Office
SUBMITTED BY: Gina Nelson, Records Clerk and Ruth Broder, Community Grants 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 set-aside for projects that target current community needs. Grant funding was increased to $500,000 in FY 2015, and remains today, using a portion of the Food and Beverage Tax funds. The total allocation is divided as follows:
$400,000
Of the total allocation, $400,000 is set aside for agencies that provide services that address one of the program’s five general funding priorities (listed below) for low to moderate income residents.
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
For 2021, staff allocated $10,000 of the $400,000 to the Sidewalk Assistance Program. These funds will be used to pay the homeowners’ share of replacement costs for low and moderate-income residents whose sidewalks have been identified for replacement by the TED Business Group.
$50,000
A total of $50,000 is allocated to programs that address a particular community issue as identified by the City Council. For CY2021, the Council one again selected Mental Health Awareness and Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention programs.
$50,000
The remaining $50,000 is reserved for councilmembers to allocate to initiatives of their choice.
Scoring Criteria
Applications are evaluated based on the extent to which they meet 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. Project provides a new or improved service to the target population that does not duplicate existing services and encourages collaboration with other organizations.
4. Project provides services to Naperville residents conveniently and in sufficient numbers or provides crucial services to a subset of Naperville residents.
5. Agency has sufficient experience, resources and staffing to successfully implement the project within a one-year timeframe and manage the grant, including documentation of benefits, compliance and reporting.
6. Applicants has made efforts to secure other funding for the activity.
7. Completeness of the application.
DISCUSSION:
The City received 39 requests totaling $1,207,964. Of that, 33 applications totaling $1,053,039 were for programs addressing the five general funding priorities listed above. Six applications requested funding for Mental Health Awareness and Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention programs in the total amount of $154,485. Of the 39 applications, 30 projects had previously received funding and nine were new requests.
A seven-person evaluation team of representatives from the City Clerk’s Office, TED Business Group, Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Disabilities, Human Rights Fair Housing Commission, Naperville Police Department, and Senior Task Force reviewed and scored the applications based on the criteria described above.
The evaluation team applied the following methodology for funding allocations:
• Prioritize existing grantees with high scores, demonstrated success, and focus on low-moderate income residents.
• Review each application and determine a unified recommendation.
The $50,000 reserved for Council award was allocated as follows:
• When more than one councilman recommended a funding amount for a project, the mean funding was calculated and awarded. If a single councilman recommended an increase, that figure was used.
• The resulting increase was multiplied by a factor based on the number of councilmembers who allocated funding.
• The factor was determined by dividing the number of councilmembers recommending the funding increase by the total number participating in the allocations.
• The resulting number was rounded to the nearest hundred dollars and added to the recommendation from the evaluation team.
The recommendations of the evaluation team and the City Council resulted in $424,190 for general Social Services Grant programs and $65,810 for Mental Health Awareness and Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention programs.
FISCAL IMPACT:
$500,000 from annual Food and Beverage Tax revenue will be allocated to Social Services Grant recipients.