The Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday approved allocating about $3.1 million to providers that operate 42 youth programs or services.
The programs include those that serve at-risk youth in targeted neighborhoods, neighborhood-based after-school operations, community-enhancement programs, management-information services and training services provided by New Futures for Youth. Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson works at that agency, but wasn't present for the vote at Tuesday's board meeting.
Aside from his absence and At-large Director Joan Adcock opposing funding for New Futures for Youth, the rest of the board voted in favor of approving the allocations to the 30 program or service providers.
Adcock didn't say why she voted no on funding New Futures. She supported funding the other programs. The $160,000 allocation to the nonprofit pays for youth employment placement, training and technical assistance to the other city-funded youth program providers, and crisis response.
During a discussion period, Adcock's questions about New Futures' roles hinted that she thought it would be more cost-effective for the city to take on those services rather than contract them out. New Futures also used to monitor the other city-funded programs, but that is now a function of the city's Community Projects Department.
"Why are we spending all these dollars if we are doing monitoring in-house?" Adcock asked. She also asked how much it would cost the city to do the other services within the department. The department's executive director, Dorothy Nayles, said it would probably take two employees.
Adcock was the only city director to question the effectiveness of the programs and how they are being held accountable. She asked why certain programs' contracts weren't being renewed this year, what is being done to improve poor attendance at many of the programs, and whether providers had received any guidance on corrective measures within the past year, among other questions.
Nayles said her department had not yet received data from all of the programs that will indicate how they performed during the 2013 contract cycle, but that certain providers would receive corrective-action plans in the first quarter of this year's cycle, and if substantial strides weren't made that program could be terminated.
Two Ministry of Intercession programs for girls were terminated this year because of what Nayles said was a history of underperforming. Contracts for two Pulaski County for Youth programs weren't renewed because the group lost its meeting space in one neighborhood. Requests for qualifications on those four programs were sent out in February and returned some proposals from providers, but ultimately none was chosen because they didn't fully meet the qualifications, city spokesman Ben Thielemier said.
Georgia Mjartan, executive director of Our House homeless shelter, which receives city funding for its youth program, took some of the program's participants to Tuesday's board meeting. She told city directors that transportation was one reason for lower program attendance.
Mjartan said that oftentimes youngsters with working parents don't have a way to get to the programs and that Our House is talking with the Little Rock School District about a partnership to provide transportation to the nonprofit's youth operation.
In addition to the funding for New Futures, the board approved distributing nearly $2.2 million to 15 groups that operate 27 youth-initiative or after-school and out-of-school programs for children ages 6 to 17 in five targeted neighborhoods known as East, Central, Midtown, Southwest and West.
Another $793,000 will fund 14 community-enhancement programs or services run by 12 providers for children ages 6 to 19.
The Community Programs Department has a base budget of $5.5 million that comes from 1994 and 2011 voter-approved citywide sales-tax increases. It anticipates having about $250,000 in carry-over funds this year, but the exact amount isn't known because last year's financial statements have not been finalized.
According to the department's proposed 2014 budget, it wants to spend more than $7.2 million on various programs and positions this year but has access to just under $5.8 million according to the base budget and carry-over estimate.
Thielemier said the department has identified three re-entry programs, expanded Hispanic programming and four positions as areas it does not have to fund this year. The total of those budget line items is a bit more than $500,000, .
Metro on 03/19/2014