The 100 days in which build a basis for implementing the three-year Youth Master Plan for Little Rock starts today after the city Board of Directors gave its endorsement of the document Tuesday night.
Tuesday's presentation of the master plan was 16 months in the making.
The plan details what the city as well as the community and nonprofit and business partners needs to do to successfully reach at-risk youth and families. It was approved in a 9-0 vote, with City Director Ken Richardson absent. A more formal approval in the form a resolution is expected in coming weeks.
The master plan lists five goals to accomplish within the three years that would serve as the framework for the next 10 years and beyond.
The goals are:
1.) Use data to prioritize services and fulfill unmet needs.
The city will attempt to move from an assortment of program providers to a coordinated network of providers who work together.
"Community engagement reflected concern that services were not reaching those with the most unmet needs," the report said.
2.) Create a set of standards that will increase programs' quality and create review benchmarks and indicators that allow accountability.
This is an area the city board has criticized for years. During the next 100 days, the city's Community Programs Department staff will work with consultants to come up with a set of outcomes and an evaluation component to measure how successful programs are for keeping at-risk youths out of trouble and advancing their opportunities in career and life.
Most city directors praised the plan Tuesday night and City Director at-large Gene Fortson commented on the accountability and measuring aspect.
"There's no way you can keep score like a baseball game on whether a child has been redirected, except for after the fact. So to put a level of accountability and measurement in this, I'm really supportive of that," Fortson said.
3.) Create a plan to ramp up communication with the community.
"Youth and community members expressed a desire to engage and provide feedback on the programs and services that are offered by the city," the plan said. "It was noted several times that greater awareness about services and programs was needed and that neighborhood hubs already frequented by youth and families such as school, church, basketball courts, etc. are the best places to reach them with education and resources"
4.) Fund more programs that provide employment skills.
To do this, the plan suggests enhancing age-appropriate services and opportunities in partnership with the business community. Additional jobs for youth need to be added, including mentorships and apprenticeships, to aid with workforce development, the plan states.
5.) Integrate youth voice in the decision making.
Community Programs Director Dana Dossett said it hasn't been decided how youths will be chosen to participate in the decision-making processes but that a method will be determined during the 100-day implementation period.
The goal of the implementation period is to get a foundation together to start the Youth Master Plan on Jan. 1, 2017. The city will seek bids on youth programs that it funds sometime in December, and the contracts of the providers who are chosen will start Jan. 1. Those programs and providers will have to live up to the new set of outcomes that are developed.
The Community Programs Department has a budget of $5.5 million, mostly spent on programs for youth.
The city's intervention and prevention funds were designated after heightened gang awareness in the city in the 1990s. Since then, some community activists and city leaders have argued that the climate has changed, yet they don't think the potential effect of the money has been fully realized.
The Youth Master Plan sets out ways to positively affect all youths within Little Rock, regardless of race, age, ability, geographic area or school.
The city paid Ohio-based Advocacy and Communication Solutions LLC $185,000 to develop the plan in coordination with a volunteer citizens committee. It's been a year-and-a-half process leading up to Tuesday night.
Dossett said that what is important moving forward is showing that this plan will have real outcomes.
"This three years is really to build the foundation. We never meant for it to be the end-all, be-all. It's actually set up to allow us to continue and access and evaluate what we were doing until we move to the next step. And that's why I'm excited about it," Dossett said. "It's a living document. Just because it's printed doesn't mean that's the end. ... It's giving us a road map on where do we go and how do we get there."
Metro on 06/08/2016