ORDINANCE NO. 230845
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Sponsor: Director of the Health Department
Authorizing the Director of Health to execute a contract with Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, for a total contract amount not to exceed $900,000.00, for Supporting People Re-entering the Community Following Incarceration services, from previously appropriated funds.
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WHEREAS, Jackson County, Missouri, has a persistently high rate of individuals returning from the Missouri Department of Corrections and other bordering state corrections systems with 80% of these individuals being first incarcerated between the ages of 20-34, which are typically the primary years for academic achievement and vocational skill development; and
WHEREAS, due to their incarceration, those who are re-entering the community will have challenges with identifying livable wage jobs that match their skill level; and
WHEREAS, the inability to find legal means of income can make it more difficult for returning citizens to avoid illicit activities that jeopardize their freedom; and
WHEREAS, these challenges can make it more difficult for them to avoid the cycles of retaliatory violence that they left behind while they were incarcerated; and
WHEREAS, three vendors applied for the RFP EV3161 Supporting People Re-entering the Community Following Incarceration and Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission was selected as the awardee; and
WHEREAS, the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission is a public safety nonprofit that was established in 1949 to fight crime and corruption; and
WHEREAS, the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission established the Second Chance program in 2008 as an employment first model for returning citizens that provides intensive case management with limited funds for wraparound services; and
WHEREAS, Second Chance has more than 13 years of experience in reducing barriers to community reintegration, increasing individual and family stability, and reducing the return to incarceration and working specifically with returning citizens that have violent crime convictions; and
WHEREAS, with these funds, Second Chance will provide evidence-based reentry support to no fewer than 120 individuals that have been recently released to Kansas City, Missouri and have either an active violent felony or violent felonies in their prior conviction background with priority consideration will be given to those individuals most affected by violence; and
WHEREAS, at least 120 individuals will receive stipends to support them as they undergo vocational training, peer support groups, conflict resolution training, and parenting and healthy relationship training; and
WHEREAS, Second Chance will track recidivism with the goal that no more than 10% will return to incarceration for a new crime; and
WHEREAS, the Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department (CREO), to assure fair representation by socially and economically disadvantaged groups, approved for this project a fourteen (14) percent representation by Minority Owned Businesses and a fourteen (14) percent representation by Women Owned Business; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:
Section 1. That the Director of Health is authorized to execute a contract with Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, for a total contract amount not to exceed $900,000.00 for the provision of Supporting People Re-entering the Community Following Incarceration services to be paid from funds appropriated in Account No. 24-2000-501905. A copy of the contract, in substantial form, is on file with the Director of Health.
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I hereby certify that there is a balance, otherwise unencumbered, to the credit of the appropriation to which the foregoing expenditure is to be charged, and a cash balance, otherwise unencumbered, in the treasury, to the credit of the fund from which payment is to be made, each sufficient to meet the obligation hereby incurred.
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Tammy L. Queen
Director of Finance
Approved as to form:
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Joseph A. Guarino
Senior Associate City Attorney