CORRESPONDENCE - 75C - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mitre -Ramirez, Norma From: Huizar, Maria Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 5:48 PM To: 'Jenny Rios'; eComment Subject: RE: April 18, 2017 City Council Agenda Item #75C Categories: Correspondence Thank you for your comments. They will be entered into the record and circulated to the City Council for their review and consideration. From: Jenny Rios[mailto:JennyRios@delhicenter.org] Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 5:30 PM To: eComment <eComment@santa-ana.org> Subject: April 18, 2017 City Council Agenda Item #75C Good Afternoon Councilmembers— Please accept my apologies for not being able to attend the April 18 City Council meeting to make my comments in person. I have a Delhi Center board meeting that I must attend. First, my intention is not to dispute the recommended awards. I know first-hand how difficult the CDBG selection process is because I managed the CDBG grants many years ago when I worked for Parks and Recreation. I appreciate the work done by the CRH Commission to rate the applications and make their recommendations — it's a tough job and I am confident they were fair and objective. I was happy to see that the CDBG awards were to focus not only on the city's strategic goals but also on "crime prevention, intervention, and/or suppression". I see that several great programs were recommended for funding but it is not clear who their target populations are. Some appear to be more along the lines of "enrichment" programs, while some indeed sound like "crime prevention". I urge the City Council to look at the target populations of the proposed programs — are they truly at risk — those who are most likely to commit crimes? Do they include the necessary outreach? In light of the increase in gang -related shootings in Santa Ana we must focus on those young people who are next in line to begin a life of crime. Delhi Center's application was for $105,342 and the recommended award is $58,271. 1 have attached a summary of Delhi Center's model which is a gang prevention program targeting high risk teens because that's who needs gang prevention. I'm talking about teens who are at a precipice of making the decision to join a gang or not. These are the kids that have not yet entered the juvenile justice system but are exhibiting problem behaviors, such as failing grades, truancy, suspensions, behavior problems in school, etc. Delhi Center cannot conduct a "gang prevention" program targeting high risk kids with the recommended award amount however, we can provide a scaled down "enrichment" program —we can still have a positive impact on the community— but it won't be "gang prevention". I spent many, many years at the City of Santa Ana developing and managing gang prevention programs, which stemmed from my training with the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention through the Department of Justice that incorporated community -wide steering committees, comprised of various city departments, nonprofits, the schools, county agencies, residents, business owners, and others who came to the table to figure out how to best address crime in the target neighborhoods. Grant funding was allocated to several different entities for their areas of expertise.