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D.8
To: Board of Supervisors
From: PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE
Date: March  25, 2014
The Seal of Contra Costa County, CA
Contra
Costa
County
Subject: Adoption of the Proposed Plan for an East & Central County Networked System of Services for Returning Citizens
APPROVE OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
Action of Board On:   03/25/2014
APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:
John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor
ABSENT:
Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor
Contact: L. DeLaney, 925-335-1097
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED:     March  25, 2014
David Twa,
 
BY: , Deputy

 

RECOMMENDATION(S):

ADOPT the "Proposed Plan for an East & Central Networked System of Services for Returning Citizens," as amended and recommended by the Community Corrections Partnership.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The FY 13-14 AB 109 Public Safety Realignment Budget included an allocation of $80,000 for the planning process to develop plans for Central and East County reentry centers/networks. The FY 13-14 AB 109 budget also includes an allocation of $800,000 for the implementation of the Plan ($400k per region). The proposed FY 14-15 AB 109 Budget also includes an allocation of $800,000 for implementation of the Plan.

BACKGROUND:

As directed by the Public Protection Committee at their March 8, 2013 meeting, a Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the AB 109 Community Programs was issued on March 15, 2013 for the following:  
BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)
    • Planning for Reentry Resource Centers $120,000 ($40k per region)
    Three proposals were submitted for “Planning for (3) Reentry Resource Centers.” The two proposals that were recommended for funding to the Board of Supervisors were provided by “Further The Work” for West County and “Emerald HPC International, LLC” for East and Central County. Contracts were awarded by the Board of Supervisors to these two firms on May 21, 2013 in the amounts of $40,000 and $80,000, respectively.  
      
    Staff of the County Administrator then developed contracts with Further The Work and Emerald HPC International, which were executed mid-June 2013. Both contractors conducted their planning processes on budget and on schedule and submitted their proposed plans to the County Administrator’s Office on January 27, 2014. At its February 21, 2014 meeting, the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) reviewed the Plan and recommended its adoption, as amended to exclude "sole sourcing" to contractors for services contemplated in the Plan. The Public Protection Committee is expected to review the Plan at its March 24, 2014 meeting as well.  
      
    Plan Revisions  
      
    Having received additional input from staff and the community upon the release of the plan, Emerald HPC revised the proposed plan for the East/Central Networked System of Services after its submittal to the CAO’s office. However, the Plan that was distributed to the CCP at their February 14, 2014 meeting did not include the revised pages in its bound form; the revised pages were provided as attachments to the staff report.   
      
    Subsequent to its submittal to the CCP at its February 21, 2014 meeting, the Plan was again revised by Emerald HPC with respect to the inclusion of an “Affiliation Disclosure” and a Revised Budget (Appendix I) which removes the proposed allocation for the Mentor-Navigator Supervision services.   
      
    Emerald HPC now recommends that Mentor-Navigator administrative and supervision services be provided on a countywide basis through the AB 109 Community Programs process (as is currently the case), rather than on a regional basis--which the earlier Plan Budget contemplated. Since the East/Central and West County plans both address the need for mentor-navigators throughout the reentry process and the assignment of mentor-navigators is essentially “geographically-blind” at the pre-sentence and pre-release phases, having just one organization responsible for administrative/supervision services is preferable.  
      
    The Affiliation Disclosure was provided by Emerald HPC International to clarify that the contractors had no prior relationships with the community based providers discussed in the Plan with the exception of the CEO of Rubicon Programs. These page revisions are included in final plan, "Proposed Plan for an East & Central Networked System of Services for Returning Citizens," which is included in Attachment A.  
      
    Plan Implementation  
      
    Both plans have relied on the assumption that implementation funds allocated in the AB 109 Public Safety Realignment Budget for FY 13-14 under “Community Programs,” in the amount of $1,200,000 ($400,000 per region of the County), would be available for use in FY 2013-14 despite the planning processes requiring slightly more than half of the fiscal year. Both contractors submitted their plans at the end of January 2014, and the approval process through the CCP, PPC, and Board of Supervisors will have taken the process through March. The RFP/RFQ processes needed for implementation of the plans will likely take an additional 2 months (assuming no delays in the process), resulting in contract development during the month of June 2014.  
      
    The contractors have contemplated that the $1,200,000 allocated in FY 13-14 for plan implementation would be encumbered in FY 13-14 and not drop into the AB 109 Public Safety Realignment Fund Balance if not fully utilized by fiscal year end. The plans require the FY 13-14 funding for programmatic start-up, as well as for specific facilities-related costs that would likely accrue to a center-based model. Ensuring that a plan is feasible in its start-up funding is essential to ensuring success in implementation.  
      
    “Proposed Plan for an East & Central Networked System of Services for Returning Citizens”   
      
    Managed by two principals, Iris and Keith Archuleta, Emerald HPC International, LLC is a comprehensive consulting firm in business since 1992 that utilizes their High Performing Communities framework to guide clients through the process of building and mobilizing a sustainable, outcomes-based team or collaborative effort. With more than 20 years of experience, Emerald HPC International has conducted large community outreach efforts such as the Youth Intervention Network in Antioch and the Richmond/North Richmond Economic Revitalization Initiative for the Chevron Corporation. Emerald HPC International has developed an award-winning process recognized by both the federal government and the United Nations for engaging and retaining stakeholder and project recipient voices. Emerald HPC International is headquartered in San Francisco, with a local office in Antioch.   
      
    Emerald HPC facilitated the development of a collaboration network using an approach that involved three phases:   
      
    • Phase 1: Planning, Fact Finding, and Issue Identification
    • Phase 2: Collaborative Building and System Design
    • Phase 3: Implementation Planning
      
    Over 80 stakeholders were engaged in the core planning team since June 2013 and an even broader stakeholder group was involved in interviews and informational sessions throughout the process. Stakeholders included representatives from the faith community, returning citizens, all affected County departments, higher education, nonprofit service providers, the business community, and elected officials. A celebration of the completion of the planning process was held on February 27, 2014 at John F. Kennedy University.   
      
    The Network relies on two essential components: a. Faith-based and other community-based organizations serving as “No Wrong Door” (NWD) engagement sites (sources of information, referrals, engagement and support); and b. Service Teams. The seven identified Service Teams in the Plan include: 1. Mentor-Navigator Services, 2. Family Reunification, 3. Housing, 4. Employment and Education, 5. Leadership and Entrepreneurialism, 6. Women’s Services, and 7. Services for Returned Citizens with Children.  
      
    In addition to the identification of faith and community-based organizations in East County to serve as NWD sites, the Plan establishes a relationship of the Network with the Local Integrated Networks of Care (LINC) collaborative to identify NWD sites in Central County. The Plan recognizes the need to continuously develop and identify participating agencies to provide ongoing services to returning citizens and their families. The organizations that have been identified at this time as "No Wrong Door" sites for participation in the networks are included in Attachment B.  
      
    The coordination, support, accountability, and communications system for the Network is provided through “Field Operations,” which speaks to the issues of Field Mobility, Triage Coordination, and Communications. Field Mobility addresses the issues of accessibility of returning citizens to service providers/service teams/network personnel, service provider oversight and quality control, redefining the relationship between law enforcement and returning citizens, and community engagement activities. The Plan proposes a partnership between the Network and the Pittsburg, Antioch, and Concord Police Departments who have agreed to provide space for a Field Operations Coordinator or for Probation staff to meet with returning citizens. Field Operations Coordinators would coordinate “triage” services amongst Probation, the local AB 109 Officer, the Mentor/Navigator, and staff of the District Attorney and Public Defender, as needed.  
      
    Field Operations Coordinators (3) will serve as the central point of contact between referrals from Probation, the Network Service Teams, and the service providers. The Field Coordinators will also coordinate referrals from NWD sites and returning citizens on their own behalf. The Field Coordinators will be supervised by a Network Manager, who would report to the Chief Probation Officer or his designee, and supported by an Administrative Assistant. A Database Administrator is also contemplated in the Plan to support the Network operations and provide network performance measurement and service provider assessment.  
      
    Although the Plan does not provide documentation of the agreed upon commitments (duties, responsibilities, relationships) of various organizations cited as Network partners, it does include a sample Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would need to be executed by partnering agencies.   
      
    While the Plan provides a “Sole Source Justification” (Appendix IV) for designating specific service providers as recipients of implementation funding, to serve as members of specified Service Teams, the CCP did not support this aspect of the Plan and recommended that the implementation of the Plan be subject, instead, to a Request for Proposals (RFP) process to allow for competitive bidding by all community-based service providers.  
      
      
    Alignment of the West County and East/Central Plans
      
    In its motion approving the plans, the CCP recommended that “the plans be aligned and coordinated and identify specifics related to oversight, service coordination, governance, and leveraging opportunities." The contractors met with staff of the CAO and the Reentry Coordinator to address these issues and proposes the following:  
      
    1. Oversight & Governance
    Both the West County Reentry Center and the East & Central Networks include governance and management structures that are deemed by the planning bodies to be most appropriate for the respective regions and models.  
    Both the Center and the Networks operate under the ultimate authority of the Board of Supervisors, which delegates general oversight of the projects to the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP). In turn, the CCP may choose to create subcommittees or to appoint representatives to serve on relevant committees, as appropriate.  
      
    1. Evaluating Impact & Data and Information Integration
    The Center and the Networks will work with both their formal partners and other reentry-related efforts across the county to support the development and analysis of common outcome targets and metrics. Such efforts may include working with internal staff or external evaluators tasked with examining or addressing issues related to reentry across Contra Costa County.  
      
    The Center and the Networks are committed to assessing their work not merely by measuring units of service (outputs) but by tracking the changes effected by the work (outcomes). The Center and the Networks will support and encourage such approaches in reentry-related efforts throughout the county.  
      
    To this end, the Center and the Networks will support opportunities to develop integrated and consistent intake and assessment protocols and methods among its partners and with other reentry-related efforts countywide. The Center and the Networks will also support the development of mechanisms to reduce repetition, barriers, and gaps for clients who are navigating across the systems, and to enhance service-providers’ and other institutional stakeholders’ ready access to appropriate, available and useful information about both clients and services countywide through data-sharing agreements and mechanisms.  
    The Center and the Networks will strive to evaluate impact in four realms:  
    1. Identifying outcomes for clients as individuals: Tracking each client’s progress along an intentional, individual path (for example: sobriety, family reunification, successful completion of probation, educational progress)
    2. Assessing collective outcomes across client cohorts (for example: rates of recidivism within a certain population, percentage of clients who achieve and retain housing, job placement and retention)
    3. Tracking outcomes for service providers (for example: percentage of a partner’s clients who complete their individual development plans, client ratings of a partner’s services)
    4. Measuring the value of the Center or the Networks as a whole (for example, assessments of the Center by Partner organizations or by clients, metrics that track progress of the Center’s clients as a whole, percentage of effective and successful referrals between the Center and the Networks and other efforts across the county)
    5. Data Systems and Information Management: It is anticipated that multiple stakeholders will continue to maintain individual data-bases and data-management systems that already exist or that are appropriate for their specific areas of service. Nonetheless, it is expected that the Networks and Center should strive to develop data systems that are integrated within their own center or network, that coordinate across the Center and the Networks, and with the larger service systems, both public and private.
    The Center and the Networks will develop their data systems in partnership with and informed by the evaluation project currently managed by Resource Development Associates, as well as with other evaluation or data-related projects that the County may choose to undertake in future.  
      
    1. Service Coordination
    1. Reentry Coordinator: The Center and the Networks will collaborate their work with the Reentry Coordinator, who holds responsibility for all matters related to reentry.
    2. Consistent Practices and Definitions: In order to foster clear understanding and expectations for clients and partners across regions, the Center and the Networks will foster the development of consistent practices, whenever appropriate, and to develop consistent definitions for terms that are used in both plans. For example, both plans involve the use of mentors and/or navigators, and the Center and the Networks will work together to establish consistent definitions and expectations cross the regions.
    3. Opportunities for Shared Training: It is likely the case that each of the models will require specific trainings most appropriate and necessary to its design. However, consistent with the County’s AB 109 Operations Plan, the Center and the Networks will work together to foster the development of shared training opportunities countywide whenever appropriate.
    4. Referrals: As is already being recognized in the County’s work across all sectors, the development of consistent and high quality referral processes and practices is essential to the creation of an efficient, effective, and integrated system of care.
    Referrals must be able to accommodate multiple stakeholders and to operate seamlessly across geographic regions and differing service models. In addition, referrals must be able to accommodate multiple data systems, varied organizational practices, and diverse client needs.  
      
    Currently, the County’s stakeholders are in the early stages of developing intentional and consistent referral processes and participant engagement strategies. The Center and the Networks will participate in these efforts, which are likely to include (but not be limited to) the following:  
    1. The ability to communicate and track client-specific referral information across geographic regions and the region-specific service systems;
    2. The ability to minimize data duplication through the development of consistent intake and assessment processes and data sharing;
    3. Consistent processes for shared updates and referrals tracking to achieve client case plans.
      
    1. Leveraging Existing and Potential Resources
    1. Maximizing existing resources: Both the Center and the Networks operate within a larger landscape of services and resources across the county. In addition, both the Center and the Networks are designed specifically to fill gaps, remove barriers, integrate efforts, and enhance the values of dozens of existing service partners and stakeholders. Reflecting this foundational intention, both the Center and the Networks will strive to identify collective opportunities to benefit and to benefit from existing resources of all kinds.
    2. Attracting additional resources: Both the Center and the Networks represent opportunities to identify and solicit new funds and other resources from multiple sources. The Center and the Networks are intended to coordinate their resource planning in order to advance opportunities not only for themselves, but also for the good of the County as a whole.
      
    1. Cross-County Learning
    Both the Center and the Networks represent new and complex enterprises that provide substantial opportunities to identify common challenges and highlight emergent issues affecting reentry in our county. As a learning team operating in partnership with the Reentry Coordinator, the leaders of the Center and the Networks will strive to provide insight, analysis, and recommendations to benefit the larger community.

    CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

    If the Board of Supervisors does not adopt the Proposed Plan, there will be no adopted plan guiding the establishment of networks of services for returning citizens in East and Central county.
    CLERK'S ADDENDUM

    Speakers: Joscelyn Jones Torres, resident of Brentwood; Antwon Cloird; Kathleen Sullivan; Iris Archuleta, Emerald HPC International; Keith Archuleta, Emerald HPC International.

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