City Council
MEETING DATE: 10/26/2016
TITLE:
Title
Dream Homes Place Based Initiative with the Desert Health Care District
End
FROM:
John A. Corella, P.E. - City Engineer
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Presentation to the City Council by Representatives of the Desert Health Care District for a Dream Homes Place Based Initiative, with an introduction by City Staff, is to generate questions, discussion and City Council direction.
Body
BACKGROUND:
The City is currently emphasizing its investment in the Dream Homes area located east of Gene Autry Drive and north of Ramon. The investment includes the recent completion of a sidewalk infill project, the just completed crack sealing all of the Dream Homes area's streets to be followed by a Project to apply Rubberized Emulsion Aggregate Slurry (REAS) to all the streets starting this November. In addition, the City has designated three City properties in the area to be developed into a community park/community center, has held a public meeting to discuss ideas for these properties and has authorized the funding of a grant consultant to assist staff in finding funding for these facilities.
City Staff and its consultant have had discussions with the Desert Health Care District (DHCD) regarding the proposed community park/community center. Out of these discussions, DHC proposed that the needs of the area may be bigger than just a community park and is proposing that the City and DHCD that DHCD work with the Dream Homes Community with a more holistic approach. DHCD has had several successes with Place Based Initiatives, recently one in an area of Desert Hot Springs and the other in an area in north Palm Springs. DHCD is now looking at the Dream Homes area as an ideal location to initiate a place based initiative. DHCD Staff has already received approval for this Place Based Initiative from their Board.
What is a place based initiative? This can be explained better by quoting the Center for the Study of Policy as follows:
"Research and experience shows that families do better when they live in strong and supportive communities. In short, place matters. … An equitable approach to ensuring that all the neighborhoods become the kinds of places that enable all children and families to succeed and thrive requires intentional efforts to build, sustain and operationalize certain types of community capacity.
This capacity is a combination of knowledge, skills, relationships, interactions and organizational resources that enable residents, civic leaders, the public and private sectors and local organizations to transform neighborhoods into places of opportunity. Based on our experience working with communities, we believe the following types of capacity are essential for successful and sustainable neighborhood transformation:
- Managing a broadly supported community process designed to improve results for children and families in a particular neighborhood;
- Working with neighborhood residents as leaders, "owners" and implementers of neighborhood transformation efforts;
- Creating strategic and accountable partnerships that engage multiple sectors and share accountability for results;
- Collecting, analyzing and using data for learning and accountability;
- Designing and implementing strategies based on the best available evidence of what works;
- Addressing policy and regulatory issues;
- Using sophisticated communications strategies to build public and political will;
- Deepening organizational and leadership capacity.
Increasingly, funders and federal officials are focusing their investments on place-based efforts to improve the outcome of families.
DISCUSSION:
DHCD will present past examples of successes in place based efforts and the partnerships that these initiatives create. Several of DHCD past efforts have brought in partners such as Loma Linda University and the University of California at Riverside.
DHCD is proposing to create a strategic plan to create a collective impact for the Dream Homes area. One of the first tasks to be presented is the development of a community specific Health Needs Assessment. This would involve the recruiting and training of community members to be hired as Community Health Workers.
DHCD Staff will present all the above and the initial concepts to the City Council for discussion and direction.
A case study of the Desert Highlands Gateway place base initiative provided by DHCD is attached for reference.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None identified at this time.
ATTACHMENTS:
Desert Highlands Gateway Community Place-Based Initiative: A Case Study