SFGov

back to Juvenile Probation Department home page

Programs_Committee

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000

MINUTES OF APRIL 25, 2001 PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEETING
held at Youth Guidance Center Cafeteria 375 Woodside Ave San Francisco, CA 94127

The Minutes of this meeting set forth all actions taken by the Commission on the matters stated, but not necessarily the chronological sequence in which the matters were taken up

1. (ACTION) Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 3:17pm by the Chair. Comms. Aramburo and Larson were present at the gavel. Comm. Dupre arrived at 3:35pm
The Chair welcomed everyone and thanked everyone for their work on the current contracts (the Dept on their report, and providers for their positive contributions to servicing the youth in the Dept and generally.
Sheila Arcelona, Community Programs division, led the introductions to the contract review.
2. (ACTION) Review and approval of Program Committee meeting minutes March 28, 2001.
The minutes were approved as written.
3. (ACTION) Consideration of recommending to the full Commission, a contract with Young Community Developers in the amount of $59,442.00 to provide job readiness services to Log Cabin Ranch.
The Chief made a brief explanation of the program and asked for approval of the contract.
Upon motion, and seconded, the item was approved for recommendation to the full Commission.
4. (ACTION) Annual assessment and consideration of recommending to the full Commission, renewal of funding for the following 13 TANF programs as per the TANF RFP, up to the maximum amounts listed:
Arcelona summarized that all programs were operational this year, serving a total of 912 individuals (in 6 mos, compared to 700 served last year for the entire year). The Dept continues to do training with the contractors, regarding various topics: eg. gender issues. They have not done case management training.
She pointed to some differences between the first and second year of funding: in the first year about 40% of the youth served were probation youth. In the first half of the second year about 25% are.
This year the Dept put together a resource binder showing all juvenile justice funded programs available to Dept POs.
· Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center $54,000
PROPS is a colaboration between API and VYDC, providing life skills for high risk API youth, and cultural training for service providers who work with this population. Issues: cost of housing in SF is making the population in the program unstable, some of their kids move out of SF. The collaborative between API and VYDC will change under the new contract, with VYDC being the lead agency. This will improve services. Comm. Arámburo mentioned that there is a large SE Asian population in the Excelsior and hoped that they could extend their work to those youth.
· Bay Area Legal Aid $100,000
The Family Services Project supports families through legal advocacy and coordinated services. The agency provides support to other organizations regarding civil legal issues, social services, and training. They have experienced changes in staffing, but partner up with the National Center for Youth Law for the training aspect. The one area of service (the hotline) is not being recommended for continuation. Comm. Arámburo asked them to do training for CBOs and the Dept staff, on the issue of emancipation. They have not provided training to any POs or counselors.
· CARECEN $100,000
This is s tatoo removal program. They experienced a backup last year of more youth wanting service than they were able to provide (the removal services are provided through SFGH), but they also provide case management services to their clients. This year they are working much more closely with SFGH and a new MOU has been written up, with the future plan of moving the services to CARECEN to make it more accessible.
· Community Boards $0
This was a program of victim/offender mediation and it experienced great difficulty in getting both parties to the table (with more victims not willing to come than offenders). With all the problems in this program format it was mutually agreed not to continue the contract. Comm. Larson asked the Chief what level of success should be expected from a program like this, given the national thrust for BARJ. The Chief commented that the philosophy of BARJ is still alive, but this program isn’t getting us closer to it. Comm. Dupré asked the staff to, at a later date, give a report to the Committee about the lessons learned here so that the same mistakes aren’t repeated in future programs.
· Edgewood Children’s Center $100,000
This does family support and advocacy services for relative caregiver families and their children. The program is on track to accomplishing their service goals. They have several new staff involved in this program.
· Girls After School Academy $70,000
Runs in Sunnydale, providing youth development activities. They had a relationship with the DDAP program, but DDAP has referred very few people to their program, so they probably will not continue that connection. They are working on a lifeskills curriculum, which they will review with Julie Posadas There needs to be closer contact between the program and the Dept. regarding referrals to their services. This could be due to previous opinions about the program, which were negative.
· Girls 2000 $100,000
This organization is a neighborhood based center fo girls and their families in Hunters Point, providing daily after school activities and support to girls 10-18 yrs of age, who are residents of public housing degvelopments in the area around Kiska Road. Itis getting prepared to break away from SLUG as their fiscal agent, as they have recently received their 501c3 non profit status. They are working with families, providing crises services, and activities are going along very well. With the increase in hunger in the area, they are now starting a food pantry to their families.
· Instituto Familiar de la Raza $100,000
There are several different activities done under this project. A Collaborative, it provides cultural arts education, supervision, and support to high risk youth. The organization has settled into a new space on Mission st. They are doing well. Half of their service population is from probation. There were no significant questions. Jose Esteva again encouraged the Commission’s support of their leather workshop. They have not done any collaboration with NFTE.
· Morrisania West, Inc. $100,000
This program (Youth Employment Readiness Program) involves youth in community service, entrepreneurial work experience, life skills training, and job search information. It began targeting youth nearing 18 yrs of age who were close to being out of the system, but now they are serving younger kids too. The program structure has changed from running groups of classes to individualized work, by appointment.
· National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship $100,000
The organization provides entrepreneurship training to detained, previously detained, and otherwise at risk youth. It offers instruction and follow up support to assist youth in developing skills in bgusiness planning, life skills, career goals, and overall educational achievement. It has gone through various changes, both in practice and in location. Currently NFTE is partnered with SF Renaissance. They said that they are going to beef up their services for LCRS. They want to start an Aftercare program there and have raised $5K toward that. They are talking about a lot of expansion into communities they haven’t worked with yet, and working with organizations in those communities. Comm. Dupré moved that this organization report back to the Commission in 6 mos on their partnering progress.
· Richmond District Neighborhood Center $100,000
An early prevention program working with after school tutorial collaborations, and other workshops to elementary school children. It was noted that they have exceeded their service numbers. Comm. Arámburo suggested they get more in touch with some other TANF organizations to perhaps offer other social services to their population.
· Samoan Community Development Center $100,000
Comm. Arámburo noted that the organization has really turned around, now facing a waiting list of people wanting to enroll in their program.
· Special Services for Groups $100,000
It is an occupational therapy program, which originated in Los Angeles, and focuses work on career planning. Services include a comprehensive employment and educational skills assessment, training in job and life skills, individual service plan development, job development and placement. It is a very important part of the prep work for students at continuation schools like Ida B Wells.

All contracts were voted on separately, but all recommendations by the Dept staff were approved. The vote on Morrisania West was by vote of 2-0, with Comm. Dupré abstaining due to a conflict of interest. Comm. Arámburo reminded everyone that the vote was on recommending funding up to the maximum listed, but not necessarily exactly those amounts. Comm. Dupré commented that if the community was supportive of the Chief, he hoped they would work with him to explore future funding after TANF ends.

5. (DISCUSSION) Public Comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the
Juvenile Probation Commission.
The Chief commented that the Dept’s budget is not firmly funded, so that there may be a need to use TANF funds for other activities, which is why the wording on the motions indicates up to a maximum amount. He made mention of the scheduled Finance Committee meetings of the Bd of Supervisors, in various communities, and that these would be good forums for community agencies to advocate for the approval of the Dept’s budget and support of their own activities. Comm. Arámburo asked the Community Programs Division staff to supply copies of the Annual Program Evaluations to the Bd of Supervisors.
Also he reiterated that TANF comes to an end in 2003, so there needs to be attention given to replacing that with something else.
There was no other public comment.
6. (ACTION) Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 5:37 pm.

Meeting Information

Programs_Committee