title
PROPOSED CONTRACT
Department(s): Cook County Justice Advisory Council
Vendor: Various, Chicago, Illinois
1. Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago, Illinois
2. Build, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
3. Enlace, Chicago, Illinois
4. Erie Neighborhood House, Chicago, Illinois
5. Habilitative Systems, Chicago, Illinois
6. Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
7. Kids Above All, Chicago, Illinois
8. St. Agatha Church, Chicago, Illinois
9. UCAN, Chicago, Illinois
10. Youth Guidance, Chicago, Illinois
Request: Authorization for the Justice Advisory Council to enter into and execute
Good(s) or Service(s): Violence Prevention, Intervention, & Reduction Services
Contract Value: Total of $3,000,000.00
1. Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, $300,000.00
2. Build, Inc., $300,000.00
3. Enlace, $300,000.00
4. Erie Neighborhood House, $300,000.00
5. Habilitative Systems, $300,000.00
6. Institute for Nonviolence, $300.000.00
7. Kids Above All, $300,000.00
8. St. Agatha Church, $300,000.00
9. UCAN, $300,000.00
10. Youth Guidance, $300,000.00
Contract period: 12/1/2020 - 11/30/2022
Potential Fiscal Year Budget Impact: FY 2021 $1,500,000.00, FY 2022 $1,500,000.00
Accounts: 11100.1499.33915.521313
Contract Number(s):
1. Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, 1205-2001A
2. Build, Inc., 1205-2001B
3. Enlace, 1205-2001C
4. Erie Neighborhood House, 1205-2001D
5. Habilitative Systems, 1205-2001E
6. Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, 1205-2001F
7. Kids Above All, 1205-2001G
8. St. Agatha Church, 1205-2001H
9. UCAN, 1205-2001I
10. Youth Guidance, 1205-2001J
Concurrences:
N/A
N/A
Summary:
The Justice Advisory Council is requesting authorization to enter into and execute contracts with ten (10) community-based organizations. These contractors will provide violence prevention, intervention, and reduction services.
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council will provide evidence-based interventions for 100 at-risk youth with justice system involvement and exposure to complex trauma. This program, Leaders of Tomorrow, interrupts cycles of violence with a holistic approach to the needs of marginalized youth in Brighton Park.
Build, Inc. will provide services to 230 young people in the Austin and Humboldt Park communities at highest risk for violence involvement. BUILD’s interventions help gang- and justice-involved youth to step away from stabilize their current environment, increase their self-efficacy, succeed in school, and successfully transition to the workforce and adulthood, with the ultimate goal of reducing violence at both the individual and community levels.
Enlace Chicago will support youth through the Little Village Youth Safety Network (LVYSN). LVYSN provides coordinated services with a dozen community partners. Data from consecutive years indicates that youth participating in LVYSN programming become more connected to adults and report being able to seek help from these adults during a crisis. These connections serve as critical protective factors, mitigating exposure to violence.
Erie Neighborhood House will offer services for women through its Proyecto Cuídate program. This program responds to the growing need for culturally competent violence prevention and family strengthening services in the Little Village community. Proyecto Cuídate provides in-depth assessments, supportive counseling, case management, parent education classes, and support groups for women designed to promote self-development and skill building. Programming will include supportive services, parenting classes and psychotherapy along with educational and/or training opportunities that include wraparound services such as literacy and English as a second Language classes for the entire family.
Habilitative Systems, Inc. (HSI) will integrate a public health and positive youth development approach to reduce youth violence and recidivism. HSI’s R.E.S.T.O.R.E. Our Youth (Recapturing, Empowering, Supporting, Transforming, Ownership, Repairing and Enhancing) program will combine evidence-based violence prevention (VP) and restorative justice (RJ) models with a holistic continuum of wrap-around services to reduce violence among at risk youth in the Chicago’s Austin, North Lawndale, and East & West Garfield Park neighborhoods.
Institute for Nonviolence Chicago will canvass the Back of the Yards, Austin, and West Garfield Park neighborhoods daily, engaging in conflict mediation and street outreach to defuse and de-escalate conflicts. Program workers respond to shootings and homicides within one hour of notification and work to prevent retaliation and support those in crisis. Combined with victim support services and re-entry case management, these efforts help heal and empower communities in the aftermath of violence and serve over 400 of the highest-risk individuals.
Kids Above All will deliver programs on the south and west sides of Chicago, with specific attention to the needs of youth in care, to remedy the negative effects of exposure to complex trauma. Programs will strengthen youth who have either been a victim of violence, committed violence, or are high risk to fall into one of those categories with specific attention to the Bronzeville, East Garfield Park, Englewood, Washington Park, Woodlawn, Lawndale, Humboldt Park, and Garfield Park communities of Chicago. Services include coordination of care with guardians, teachers, family members and other adults in the lives of participants.
St. Agatha Church will work with with local residents to lower the short-and-long-term crime, violence, and incarceration rates in East and West Garfield Park and North Lawndale, through practices that increase the potential for healing and empowering community residents and returning citizens. Staff members, along with church and community volunteers, act as coaches and mentors to individuals incarcerated at Cook County Jail, and upon their release assists them in accessing basic needs such as identification, housing, job training, trauma counseling and employment. St. Agatha also conducts weekly Circles for the parents of youth incarcerated in the Juvenile Detention Center to provide supports and strategies for building stronger communication skills with their children and helping them to make more positive choices upon release.
UCAN will provide tested violence interruption, 1:1 and group mentoring, counseling, workforce development, and wraparound services for young persons who have been victims and/or perpetrators of violence in Chicago’s North Lawndale community. 100 youth and adults who have been detained and/or are at risk of detention in the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center or the Cook County Jail will receive supports to reduce the impact of exposure to violence and trauma, with a goal of 90% of these individuals not being subsequently charged with a violent crime.
Youth Guidance will deliver its proven BAM (Becoming a Man) counseling intervention program to 110 high-need male students at Thornton Township High School in Harvey and Rosa Parks Middle School in Dixmoor. BAM offers an integrated character development, violence prevention, and counseling program to youth between the ages of 12 and 17; this program is shown by external evaluations by the University of Chicago Crime Lab to be an effective means of supporting academic engagement and significantly decreasing student criminal behaviors.
These contracts were selected pursuant to Request for Proposals (RFP) 1205-2001, released in February 2020. The aforementioned vendors were selected based on the established evaluation criteria.
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