Projects in California, Connecticut, and Wisconsin to focus on racial disparities in child welfare and juvenile justice
WASHINGTON, DC — TODAY the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), a grantee of the Social Innovation Fund’s Pay for Success program, announced projects in three states to assess feasibility and develop Pay for Success capacity. Three projects will receive technical assistance from NCCD for up to two years: YouthStat, a program of the City of New Haven, Connecticut; Alternatives to Detention and Placement, a program of the San Diego nonprofit the Children’s Initiative; and One Summer Plus, a program of Milwaukee’s nonprofit Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.
“NCCD strongly believes that Pay for Success creates a real possibility for sustained, positive change in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems,” said Kathy Park, acting president of NCCD. “We are proud to work with these three extremely dynamic programs to see if this innovative financing will work for them.”
In October, NCCD received $863,959 in investments from the Corporation for National and Community Service’s (CNCS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF). As part of the SIF’s Pay for Success Initiative, NCCD is helping strengthen the pipeline of state and local governments and service providers prepared to implement Pay for Success projects across the country.
“The SIF Pay for Success grantees held highly competitive, open competitions to select communities in need of services and here we’re seeing the results of those competitions,” said Lois Nembhard, acting director of the Social Innovation Fund. “We couldn’t be more enthusiastic for NCCD and their selection of programs, all charged with the important mission to measurably improve the lives of people most in need.”
The Social Innovation Fund and its non-federal partners have committed to investing more than $700 million in effective community solutions. NCCD’s project aims to assess feasibility and develop Pay for Success capacity in jurisdictions from the states with the highest rates of racial and ethnic disparities in these systems. NCCD released a request for proposals in December for programs in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin.
“We received competitive proposals from states across the country,” said Deirdre O’Connor, senior program specialist at NCCD. “Through careful review and discussion, we selected our final three programs. We look forward to working with each to bring them one step closer to successfully implementing the Pay for Success model.”
About New Haven’s YouthStat Program
This initiative brings together city departments, the Board of Education, state agencies and community groups to identify and evaluate at-risk adolescents, and then intervene and intercept as necessary with personalized action plans to engage the youth and provide positive options. Youth Stat utilizes a strengths-based approach and provides each participating youth with a support team, an individualized Success Action Plan, an adult mentor, academic support, after school or jobs skills programming, and access to mental health and basic need services.
About The Children’s Initiative
The Children’s Initiative provides leadership, technical assistance, advocacy and cross-system collaboration to improve the lives of children and families. The Children’s Initiative works to assist government, schools and community organizations in being more efficient, increasing investment in prevention and intervention programs, maximizing dollars for direct services in communities, reducing violence and crime, and increasing academic success for our children and youth. For more information about The Children’s Initiative, visit www.thechildrensinitiative.org.
About Community Advocates Public Policy Institute
The Public Policy Institute (PPI) was founded in 2008 as a division of Community Advocates, a nonprofit serving low-income people in Milwaukee since 1976. PPI pursues its mission to prevent and reduce poverty while fostering wellness through a combination of local and national-scope work. The approach includes public health prevention work, re-granting to community-based agencies, policy research/advocacy, and a Minority Male Achievement Initiative. PPI seeks to develop evidence-based policy and prevention programs to reduce poverty, narrow disparities, and promote social justice and public health.
About the National Council on Crime and Delinquency
NCCD promotes just and equitable social systems for individuals, families, and communities through research, public policy, and practice. NCCD offices are located in Washington, DC; Oakland, CA; and Madison, WI. For more information about NCCD, visit www.nccdglobal.org.
About the Social Innovation Fund
The Social Innovation Fund, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, combines public and private resources to grow the impact of innovative, community-based solutions that have compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the United States. The SIF focuses on overcoming challenges in three areas of priority need: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development. To learn more, visit www.nationalservice.gov/sif.
About the Corporation for National and Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service and champions community solutions through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.
