Wednesday, October 11, 2017

MAYOR DE BLASIO HIGHLIGHTS ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF NONPROFIT RESILIENCY COMMITTEE’S FIRST YEAR


As the Nonprofit Resiliency Committee embarks on its second year, Mayor Bill de Blasio today highlighted its accomplishments in strengthening the partnership between the City and the nonprofit human service sector. Since the creation of the Committee, the City has implemented practices and policies to facilitate closer collaboration between the City and non-profit organizations in the development, design and management of more than $6.5 billion in social service programs every year. 

The committee’s accomplishments include many immediate investments and policy changes made to stabilize the sector, and the implementation of strategies that will allow social service organizations to continue delivering high-quality services to vulnerable New Yorkers over the long-term.
Investments
The City’s FY 2018 adopted budget includes $374 million in investments made by this Administration in the human services sector for the current fiscal year, increasing to more than $600 million annually by FY 2021.

This includes additional funding to support nonprofits’ administrative overhead costs, and rate increases for several essential programs and services including homeless shelters, Beacon youth centers, and case management for seniors. With these investments, the City acknowledges the increasing costs of delivering services. In some cases, payment rates had not been increased in a quarter century.

The investments also cover collective bargaining increases for day care workers, along with a wage increase of about 9% and a minimum wage of $15 per hour by 2019 for employees in the nonprofit human services sector.

Cash Flow Policy
The City implemented a new policy designed by our nonprofit partners to put payments in the hands of service providers earlier. The 25% advance on all registered City contracts increases cash flow to service providers, allowing them to seamlessly continue to help New Yorkers in need.
In the first quarter of this fiscal year, the City disbursed $604 million in advances to fund program startup costs and support financial stability for nonprofit providers.

Enhancing Contracting Services
Health and Human Services (HHS) Accelerator is the City’s web-based system used to electronically manage procurement with our nonprofit providers. Through the work of the Committee, the City leveraged the platform to digitize fiscal audits for the first time, impacting more than 1,000 human service contracts per year.

Digitizing audits reduces duplicative requests and hours of staff time and labor required to submit documents to City offices.


Collaborative Program Design Guide
The Committee produced a written guide on how City agencies and nonprofits can work together to design programs and services that achieve maximum impact for New Yorkers. 

Feedback from nonprofit partners suggests that the design and structure of programs can present challenges in executing contract responsibilities as it relates to staffing, budgeting and other requirements. By improving communication during the development of human service programs, the guide will be a tool for creating more effective and sustainable programs moving forward.

The City is currently using this guide to design a three-year, $29.7 million program at the Department of Corrections that aims to reduce the recidivism rate. Recommendations from the guide also informed the creation of the Civic Service Design Tools + Tactics, an initiative of the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity that launched this month to provide an introduction to service design for City Agencies and public servants.

Procurement Training
In response to feedback from nonprofit partners, the Mayor’s Office for Contract Services (MOCS) held educational sessions to provide more information about the City’s procurement process, making the City contracting more accessible and transparent. 
Taken together, the Nonprofit Resiliency Committee’s policies and practices implemented in the first year will alleviate administrative burdens for nonprofits; foster greater communication between the City and community based organizations and expand the capacity for each organization to execute its mission; and increase consistency, efficiency, accessibility and transparency in working with the City.

“We set out on a mission and our first year’s efforts have proved to bring significant improvements to the way we best serve New Yorkers with our partners in human services,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “New Yorkers count on us to work together and deliver on some of our biggest initiatives. The Committee’s second year promises to build upon these achievements.”

Our government and nonprofit providers are critical partners in our work to support New Yorkers,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Herminia Palacio. “I am very proud that in the past year we have together been able to weave a strong, vibrant fabric to support individuals, families, and communities.”

“In order to fulfill our mission of creating a more just and sustainable city, the social service sector and City government must work together. Much of the important work we do happens in partnership with our nonprofit partners. This past year, through joint problem-solving, increased collaboration, and by addressing some of the most immediate needs of New York City's non-profit sector, we’ve made important strides to making an already strong sector even stronger. In doing so, we will be able to positively impact the lives of more people in this City and achieve our shared goals,” said Richard Buery, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives and Co-chair of the Nonprofit Resiliency Committee.
 
"Our nonprofit partners are essential to delivering critical and effective services throughout our New York City communities," said Michael Owh, Director of the Mayor's Office of Contract Services. “The City is committed to supporting their organizations and programs MOCS appreciates the countless hours nonprofit leaders devoted to collaborating with us in an effort to streamline administrative processes and enhance accessibility to City contracting. Our partnership achieved rapid results that we look forward to expanding in our second year.”


"The city's community-based organizations do critical work to increase equity by ensuring all New Yorkers have access to vital services," said Matt Klein, Executive Director of the Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity. "The Committee has opened new critical pathways for government and nonprofit providers to work more closely together and we are proud to help strengthen this cross-sector collaboration."

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