Title
Resolution to Approve and Appropriate FY 23 Budget and Allocations for 1-Year Mini-Grants as Part of the New Human Service Partnership ($164,903.48)
Memorandum
In 2021, the Washtenaw Coordinated Funding Partnership ended. In 2022, Washtenaw County, the City of Ann Arbor and the Washtenaw Urban County created the New Human Services Partnership to replace Washtenaw Coordinated Funding.
The Washtenaw County and City of Ann Arbor Leadership team have been integral to the development of the New Human Services Partnership, which is working to integrate equity throughout the process, and shift the focus of human services funding to address issues of poverty, racism, and trauma as the root cause of institutional inequities.
As a reminder, the overall goals of this funding program include:
• Desire to make impact and move the needle for those facing institutional inequities, while also supporting the safety net
o Incorporate Equity throughout the process including
o Accessibility to the application process
• Community-inclusive review process
o Equity review of applicants prior to award / contracting
o Equity in service delivery
• Focus on addressing institutional racism, poverty, and trauma as root causes of institutional inequity
• Redevelop strategic framework for investing resources to be focused on an Equitable grant making and process while achieving high impact outcomes
o Outcomes/goals co-created with experts and community
o Incorporate lessons learned from COVID-19 response and previous COFU model
o Accessibility for grantees - allow for under-represented, new, or growing groups to access funding
o Ease of process - for applicants and staff
o Flexibility in funding/programming to allow for pivots and learning, including emerging needs
• Partnership continues to allow for shared communication, links to community partners, ongoing need, support in place, etc.
The New Human Services Partnership has added an enhanced evaluation and equity assessment component. A subset of the Leadership team reviewed proposals from evaluators and selected the University of Michigan School of Social Work Program Evaluation Group. The U of M Program Evaluation Group (PEG) will help each grantee conduct an equity self-assessment and will provide feedback and other forms of support to help grantees take steps to create practices that promote equity, such as developing board members and staff that represent the communities being served. All New Human Services Partnership grantees will receive intentional support that allows them to build capacity so that they can sustain the equitable practices they start during the grant period. Additionally, grantees will need to make progress on the DEI goals set in this action plan and improve the equity practices of the organization in order to continue being funded throughout the five-year funding period. This accountability measure helps prevent grantees from neglecting their identified areas of growth and helps ensure that human services in Washtenaw County continually improve at promoting equity.
In addition to the support around equity and DEI, the U of M Program Evaluation Group will be working with all grantees around data collection, outcome creation and regular reporting on data, metrics and evaluations. PEG will also be able to provide capacity building to agencies related to data collection and reporting as well.
Detailed information on the equity framework and overall timeline can be found on the webpage here: <https://www.washtenaw.org/3422/New-Human-Services-Partnership-Planning>.
As part of the process, three different funding rounds are planned for 2022:
• Safety Net Grants:
o 5-year commitments in the range of $200,000-300,000 per grantee per year (completed)
• Mini- grants:
o 1-year grants to support trying new ideas, and/or supporting newer agencies up to $40,000 (underway)
• High-Impact grants:
o 5-year commitments with an expectation of positive outcomes showing real change for households served. Funding at $200,000-300,000 per grantee per year (winter)
Several funding sources have been identified for the overall New Human Services Partnership including the following:
• Washtenaw County General Fund (annual) - $1,207,529
• City of Ann Arbor General Fund (annual) - $1,207,529
• City of Ann Arbor American Rescue Plan Funds (one-time) - $1,682,630, to be administered through a separate subrecipient agreement with OCED
• Washtenaw Urban County (annual)- 15% of Annual Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) (estimated at $316,385)
• Washtenaw Urban County Community Development Block COVID grant (CDBG-CV) one-time - $527,930
• Ann Arbor Township American Rescue Plan Funds - $40,000 - for one mini-grant
OCED is coordinating with the County and City departments related to the balancing some of the more unique funding sources such as ARPA, including eligibility and reporting. Combined, the current available funding for the New Human Services Partnership for 2022 is $3,104,226. The funding will be distributed among the funding rounds in the following ways:
• Safety Net Grants Program
o $1,807,893.18 (59% of overall budget)
• Mini-Grants Program
o $407,707.09 (12% of overall budget)
• High Impact Grants Program
o $888,625.46 (29% of overall budget)
Mini-Grant Funding Round
he second of the three funding rounds is intended to provide smaller organizations who are addressing poverty, systemic racism, and trauma as a root cause of institutional inequity in Washtenaw County an opportunity to receive funding. NSHP leadership want to support smaller organizations who are providing high quality service to community members that may fall through the gaps of larger organizations, such as community members with historically marginalized social identities and community members that are geographically distant from major service providers. The Mini-Grants can be used to sustain or expand existing services, but we are also encouraging organizations to apply with innovative ideas. Organizations with an overall budget of $1 million or less are eligible to apply.
• Total funding round allocation is $407,707
• There are 10 mini-grants available this year at $40,000 each for one year
• Organizations with overall budgets of $1 million or less are eligible to apply
• Goal for grantees is to have 60% with leaders with underrepresented identities
• Mini-grants are not exclusively for new agencies, so existing organizations are also eligible
• Mini-Grants can be used to continue existing programming, to scale up programing, or to pilot a new program
• The funding round was open to non-profits and community agencies that have a fiscal sponsor even if they are not 501(c)3 non-profits
• The application form was much simpler than previous cycles, and allowed applicants to type into a fillable pdf and sign and submit to the County.
• All grantees had access to the scoring rubric as part of the application materials so could consider the scoring as they developed the application.
Prior to the Request for proposals opening, OCED staff provided two prep sessions for those groups interested in learning how to apply for funding through the County’s RFP process. The Request for Proposals was released on August 22, 2022. The Request for Proposals were due on Sept. 20, 2022. We received thirty-three (33) submissions. Thirty-one (31) were eligible for review.
During this application period OCED recruited and trained members of the community to review applications and provide feedback on which applicants should be awarded funding. Community reviewers were recruited through various channels including existing elected officials, community board members and residents. The goal of the recruitment was to provide broad demographic and geographic representation. The outreach resulted in a diverse mix of reviewers, with the exception of gender:
• 4 residents of color, 5 identifying as white, and one choosing not to answer
• Age ranges:
o 26-35 - 3
o 36-45 - 5
o 46-55 - 1
o 56-65 - 1
• Geography
o Ann Arbor (City): 3
o Saline (City): 1
o Superior: 1
o Ypsilanti (City): 1
o Ypsilanti (Town): 2
o Unshared 48109 address: 1
o Unshared 48197 address: 1
• Gender:
o Cisgender Woman: 8
o Prefer not to Answer: 2
• Income
o 20K-$34,999: 1
o 50K-$74,999: 2
o 75K-$99,999: 3
o 100K-$149,999: 1
o 150K+: 3
• Property ownership
o Own their property: 5
o Rent their property: 4
o Live with family: 1
OCED staff reviewed the proposals for basic eligibility including financial risk and scale of budget; however, OCED staff did not score the proposals. OCED staff facilitated the community review process, but the final recommendations were made by the Community Reviewers. All reviewers participated in training, which included review of the New Human Services Partnership, the Mini-grant scoring rubric and training on the biases reviewers can bring to scoring. Reviewers scored proposals, and scores were tallied. Those were followed by discussion sessions to carefully deliberate on the recommendations. The reviewers were incredibly thoughtful in their discussion and consideration, working to bring in equity considerations as well as local knowledge. We want to express our sincere thanks and appreciation for their commitment to this process. Those recommendations follow (not in any order):
Washtenaw Housing Alliance - $40,000
Funding from the NHSP Mini-Grant Program will be used two-fold by the WHA: 1) support our part-time Community Housing locator position to assist in identifying and expanding the number of units of permanent housing available to people with the greatest needs in the homeless system of care and 2) provide near-immediate, flexible financial resources through the Landlord Guarantee Fund to eliminate barrier to obtaining permanent housing as quickly as possible.
Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety - $40,000
Funding would allow CROS to develop a team experienced in group facilitation and data collection to get substantive feedback from those who would be most impacted by the development of an unarmed public safety response. Based on community input, unarmed safety response would send trained responders to those experiencing crisis.
FedUp Ministries - $40,000
This funding will go towards acquiring a mobile shower and laundry facility for FedUp to take out into the community. This facility will have shower units and washers/dryers that individuals will be able to access to take a hot shower and wash loads of laundry.
Buenos Vecinos - $40,000
Buenos Vecinos is requesting general operating support. If awarded, NHSP mini-grant funds would assist the three Coordinators with maintaining and expanding Buenos Vecinos’ programming to serve the local Latinx community within the organization’s has four distinct program areas to advance the mission: Meeting Latinx Neighbors' Needs (Housing and Basic Needs), Jovenes Tejedores de Sociedad (Education), Latinx Mental Health Collaborative (Health), and Movilizacion del Voto (Civic Engagement).
Peer Support Network - $40,000
Peer Navigators (PNs) will be trained to engage and deescalate residents, assess for emergent needs, develop a basic action plan and initiate the steps necessary to address immediate issues that could lead to loss of housing. When requested by the resident, Peer Navigators will be trained in resource navigation and will have the ability to refer and connect residents with community agencies or organizations that can facilitate longer term interventions or programs.
A Brighter Way - $40,000
The program is focused around the organization's philosophy of "Reentry through Relationship". The goal of the program is to amplify the progress made in mitigating systemic barriers and stigmas currently in place for the formerly incarcerated. The program has three components: advocacy through personal interaction, building community partnerships, and awareness, education, and engagement.
Black Men Read - $40,000
This project is a new partnership combining Black Men Read (BMR)’s Afrocentric curriculum with the existing structure and theme-based, learner-centered approach of the already established Community Action Network (CAN)’s Educational Summer Camp programming. The program will offer weekly, hour-long literacy-focused engagement sessions throughout the summer at up to 6 sites and is estimated to reach up to 120 children. The implementation of Black Men Read’s unique curriculum will support anti-racism by exposing youth to culturally affirming content.
Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Interdependent Out of Necessity (MISSION) -
$40,000
MISSION provides emergency, short-term motel stays to homeless families with children enrolled in AAPS, all other children (younger than school age, outside of AAPS), and adults that are chronically or very suddenly homeless, those physically disabled, aging individuals, vulnerable females, and those with mental health issues or substance use disorders.
Community Resource Center, Inc. - $40,000
Funding will support the Community Resource Center's open choice food pantry program and all other safety net services the small agency coordinates and provides to residents in the southwest corner of Washtenaw County.
Fair Housing Center - $40,000
Fair Housing wants to expand their non-grant related fundraising and would use funding to hire a Development Assistant to increase fundraising, cultivate new donors and sponsors, and enhancing their relationships with current donors.
Staff
Prepared by: Teresa Gillotti, Director, Office of Community & Economic Development
Reviewed by: Derek Delacourt, Community Services Area Administrator
Approved by: Milton Dohoney Jr., City Administrator
Body
Whereas, In the past, Ann Arbor City Council has allocated funding to community-based organizations for the purpose of delivering important human services to Ann Arbor and County residents;
Whereas, The Coordinated Funding partnership was the previous means by which this funding was allocated, and this process ended on June 30, 2021, and the New Human Services Partnership was created to fill the gap in collaborative human services funding;
Whereas, There will be three funding rounds for the New Human Services Partnership, and the second, Mini-Grants, represents 12% of combined funding from all partners and sources;
Whereas, The Ann Arbor City Council approved distributing funding based on its previous budgeted allocation of $1,207,529 annually for all three funding rounds of the New Human Services Partnership;
Whereas, The New Human Services Partnership is funded by Washtenaw County General Funds, City of Ann Arbor general funds, City of Ann Arbor American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Washtenaw Urban County CDBG and CDBG-CV funds;
Whereas, Of the total funding allocated, the anticipated amount of funding to be used for the Mini-Grants program is $400,000, including $40,000 from Ann Arbor Township’s American Rescue Plan allocation; and
Whereas, The organizations listed below were selected by volunteer community reviewers, who are representative of the diversity of our community; and
Whereas, The Ann Arbor City Council approves the funding recommendation made by the Office of Community and Economic Development based on the community review process for RFP 8358;
RESOLVED, That the Ann Arbor City Council hereby approve the funding recommendations for the New Human Services Partnership Mini-Grant Funding Round to Washtenaw County Housing Alliance, Coalition for Re-envisioning Our Safety, FedUp Ministries, Buenos Vecinos, Peer Support Network, A Brighter Way, Black Men Read, Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Interdependent Out of Necessity (MISSION), Community Resource Center, Inc., and Fair Housing Center for RFP 8358 mini-grant funding in the amounts listed below as well as $20,000 for Barrier Busters for unmet needs funding from the City of Ann Arbor;;
Funding through City of Ann Arbor:
o Washtenaw Housing Alliance, $40,000
o Buenos Vecinos, $40,000
o Peer Support Network $40,000
o Barrier Busters, $20,000
Funding through Washtenaw County
o Coalition for Re-envisioning our Safety - $40,000
o FedUP Ministries $40,000
o A Brighter Way - $40,000
o Community Resource Center - $40,000
o Fair Housing Center - $40.000
Split funding:
o Black Men Read
o City of Ann Arbor - $24,903
o Washtenaw County - $15,097
Funding Through Ann Arbor Township ARPA
o Michigan Itinerant Shelter System Interdependent Out of Necessity (MISSION) $40,000
RESOLVED, That the Ann Arbor City Council hereby approve funding up to $164,903 of the $1,207,529 allocated to the New Human Services Partnership for the Mini-grant funding round to the above listed agencies and Barrier Busters unmet needs fund;
RESOLVED, That the Mayor and City Council authorize the City Administrator to direct the Washtenaw County Office of Community & Economic Development to negotiate contractual agreements with the funded entities subject to approval as to substance by the City Administrator, and subject to approval as to form the City Attorney; and
RESOLVED, That these agreements may be achieved through delegation of contracts and administration of funds to Washtenaw County on the City’s behalf.