City directors Ken Richardson and Antwan Phillips met Tuesday morning with Community Programs Director Dana Dossett and Assistant Director Michael Sanders to discuss how youth-focused programs are monitored and to iron out some procedural details.
The directors wanted to hear more about what the Department of Community Programs requires from groups it contracts with to provide services and and how city officials can better communicate to the public that the services are having a positive impact. The Community Programs department doesn’t offer any programming itself; instead, it contracts with outside entities to offer programs. It also works with the city’s commission on Children, Youth and Families to coordinate services. Richardson and Phillips said they’d heard from a group of concerned citizens who questioned the success of the programs, which sparked Tuesday’s discussion.
Programs meant to get young people off the streets and out of dangerous situations have been around for decades, though referred to by different names. In the early ‘90s, Little Rock had youth initiative programs. Today, the city has prevention, intervention and treatment programs.
In 2022, the city broke the record for the number of homicides in one year, which was previously set in 1993 with 76. Crime prevention figured heavily in the mayoral race and has been a frequent topic of discussion at board meetings. Many of the board members have expressed skepticism about the prevention, intervention and treatment programs.
On Tuesday, Richardson provided some historic context from programs in the early ’90s when he oversaw the city’s youth initiative projects. He said that there is more Little Rock can do for public safety today than hire more police and build bigger jails.
“I’m seeing, creeping back in right now, what we saw in the early ’90s: young people with a dangerous mental combination of fearlessness and hopelessness,” Richardson said.
He also argued that the previous programs were evidence based and were successful partially due to a task force and subcommittees that worked in targeted areas to build relationships. He wondered how accurate current reports from programs were because the contractors were aware when monitoring would occur. Overall, Richardson said that numbers don’t lie, and he wants to see some numbers.
Phillips said that he understood that measuring a negative is difficult. If the programs were working and deterring crime, there would be nothing to measure. He suggested that Community Programs should frequently share success stories of individuals who are using the services so the public knows what is being done. City Manager Bruce Moore also suggested that a portion of the board’s meetings be dedicated to highlight a chosen PIT program.
Dossett said that the team is working on ways to show success, including sharing stories about people who have benefited from the programs. She said that a data software called Apricot 360 was recently approved for Community Programs, and the department’s data coordinator can start collecting soon.
The first step in finding contractors to provide services is a request for proposal. If a group is selected, they enter into a contract with the city and Community Programs develops a monitoring rubric based on the contract. Because different companies provide different services, they’re monitored in different ways.
Getting responses to RFPs is difficult, Sanders said. Even if groups are interested in working with the city, there aren’t a lot of folks that understand and can follow the procurement process. The Department of Human Services also has licensure requirements for applicants, Dossett said. They were put in place a handful of years ago, and Sanders said that the requirements limit program coordinators to people with college degrees who don’t have a felony on their record.
Richardson said that the licensing requirement has shut out some of the best teachers. Moore echoed that the pool for potential program providers shrunk after the implementation. Moving forward, Moore recommended that officials should meet with DHS to discuss potential changes to the requirements under Gov. Sarah Sanders’ administration and get the word out more about the work that Community Programs is doing.