DATE: August 21, 2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Housing and Neighborhood Services Department
TITLE: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH VISTA COMMUNITY CLINIC FOR PROJECT REACH PROGRAM AT LIBBY LAKE COMMUNITY CENTER
RECOMMENDATION
title
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a Professional Services Agreement (PSA) with Vista Community Clinic (VCC), in the amount of $83,136, for the Project REACH Program at the Libby Lake Community Center, effective July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025; and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement upon receipt of all supporting documents.
body
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Established in 1995, Project REACH is one of the longest-running programs at VCC. Reaching adolescents through afterschool programs located in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence, Project REACH has served thousands of low-income middle- and high-school students, providing daily academic, social and emotional support. Project REACH has helped to create a sense of community in the Libby Lake neighborhood.
Over the past year, nearly 70 percent of REACH youth at Libby Lake have completed at least one life skills curriculum, including: Baby Real Deal (childcare simulation activity; Expanded Learning (business entrepreneurship instruction); Safe Dates (healthy relationships); HOPE (mental health coping skills); and Education and Career Success (employment workshop). Youth also participated in 12 field trips that served to broaden the perspectives of young people who rarely leave their own neighborhood. Destinations included a visit to the Museum of Tolerance, a California mission, and the Tijuana Estuary Refuge. In a time when youth crime rates are climbing and young people report feeling disconnected from the larger community, REACH youth participated in over a dozen community-service learning projects, making and donating blankets to the homeless, distributing food to the needy, and cleaning up local parks and beaches.
REACH also worked with neighborhood parents and caregivers as well, engaging 143 adult family members in a variety of workshops that included Parent/Staff Meet and Greet; learning how to use the Aeries Portal to track student academic progress, how to talk to kids about vaping and healthy eating, and a free legal clinic. Parents and caregivers also joined small groups to learn parent/teen communication strategies. All materials and sessions were bilingual in both English and Spanish.
In FY 2024-25, the focus will be on increasing numbers to maximum enrollment and engaging youth in multiple neighborhood integration activities allowing youth to break down barriers between neighborhoods and promote understanding and friendships among youth from historically rival neighborhoods. These activities were developed to address concerns about the mental health and substance use challenges seen among Oceanside youth and young adults.
The PSAs will sustain positive youth development and gang/drug/violence prevention for 60+ Oceanside youth living in the high-risk neighborhood of Libby Lake and surrounding communities. The program provides youth with employment and life skills training, academic assistance, and conflict resolution. Through this program, Oceanside’s youth have a safe place to be after school, access to community resources, and assistance from highly trained, trusted adult facilitators who are invested in the youth, their families and the Libby Lake community.
The PSA with VCC is to operate the Project REACH program at the Libby Lake Community Center from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The scope of work, budget details and reporting documents are incorporated in the PSA (Attachments A and B).
FISCAL IMPACT
The total cost of the agreement is $83,136 and will be charged to the Non-Departmental account 170174101.5395.0014 (REACH Libby Lake) which has a current available balance of $86,046; therefore, sufficient funds are available. The funding source for this agreement is the General Fund. Vista Community Clinic will submit monthly invoices and quarterly progress reports to the Neighborhood Services Department and will submit quarterly Non-profit Organization Financial reports to the Finance Department.
COMMISSION OR COMMITTEE REPORT
Does not apply.
CITY ATTORNEY’S ANALYSIS
The referenced document has been reviewed by the City Attorney and approved as to form.
end
Prepared by: Michele Gehr, Management Analyst
Reviewed by: Leilani Hines, Housing and Neighborhood Services Director
Submitted by: Jonathan Borrego, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS:
1. PSA
2. Proposed Budget
3. Funding Proposal