Approve funding recommendations of Children’s Levy Allocation Committee for July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2028
The City of Portland ordains.
Section 1. The Council finds:
- The City proposed and voters approved a local option property tax levy at the November 5, 2002, general election to fund programs to help children in Portland. The levy created the Portland Children’s Levy to make targeted investments in proven programs.
- In May 2023 voters approved a fourth renewal of the local property tax levy to continue supporting the Portland Children’s Levy to invest in proven programs in the areas of early childhood, child abuse prevention and intervention, foster care, after-school, mentoring and hunger relief. A five-person citizen Allocation Committee was created to make recommendations regarding the expenditure of levy funds.
- On April 23, 2025, the Allocation Committee voted to fund the early childhood, child abuse prevention and intervention, foster care, hunger relief, afterschool, and mentoring programs set forth in Exhibit A.
NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:
- The funding recommendations made by the Children’s Levy Allocation Committee described in Exhibit A are approved. The Director is authorized to enter into agreements, which shall be effective as of July 1, 2025, awarding grants substantially similar to those contemplated in the Allocation Committee funding recommendations to the organization identified in the funding recommendations identified in Exhibit A.
- In the event that any grantee becomes unwilling or unable to use City grant funds in a manner consistent with a grant agreement that is authorized by this ordinance, the Director is hereby authorized to terminate the grant agreement in accordance with its terms, and execute a new grant agreement with a different grantee provided that (1) the funding allocated for the new grant agreement is equal to the amount of unspent funds allocated by this ordinance for the terminated agreement, and (2) the scope of work stated in the new agreement is substantially the same as the scope of work in the terminated agreement.
Exhibits and Attachments
Impact Statement
Purpose of Proposed Legislation and Background Information
The purpose is to allow the Children’s Levy to award a total of $70,976,000 million to early childhood, after school, mentoring, child abuse prevention and intervention, foster care and hunger relief programs as outlined in the memo entitled “Request for City Council Approval” and “Exhibit A: “Portland Children’s Levy Funding Allocations July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2028.”
Financial and Budgetary Impacts
There are no costs to the City general fund. Children’s Levy revenues are generated by a special property tax levy and the proceeds of the levy will fund the proposed allocations. The current levy runs July 2024 through June 2029.
The legislation will result in 95 new grant agreements with non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporations, local education agencies, community colleges and/or universities.
Economic and Real Estate Development Impacts
This legislation will support, in whole or in part, 500-600 jobs at grantee agencies to provide services to children and families. This legislation does not directly affect household income, other businesses, or the feasibility of housing production and real estate development projects.
Community Impacts and Community Involvement
Community Impacts
Children and families disproportionately impacted by historical inequities gain access to culturally specific and responsive program services funded by the Children’s Levy. All services contribute to achieving established Children’s Levy goals outlined in the table below and support children, youth and parents to achieve positive outcomes. In FY24, 77% of the children served in programs supported by the Children’s Levy identified as Black, Indigenous or of color. PCL’s annual community report and data appendix provide more data on the community impact of currently funded programs.
Children’s Levy Goals
Levy-wide
| |
| Early Childhood | Support children’s early development and readiness for kindergarten. |
| Child Abuse Prevention and Intervention | Prevent child abuse and neglect and support vulnerable families. |
| Foster Care | Support the well-being and development of children and youth in foster care. |
| After School | Provide safe and constructive after-school and summer programing that supports children’s well-being and school success. |
| Mentoring | Connect children and youth with caring adult role models that support their well-being. |
| Hunger Relief | Expand access to healthy, nutritious food for hungry children. |
Community Involvement
Please see memo submitted for more detail. Briefly, in 2023-24, PCL worked Camille E. Trummer Consulting, and City contracted Community Engagement Liaisons to conduct a community engagement process as required by the ballot measure and Act (Resolution 37610) referring the Levy to voters. Community engagement activities were designed to identify community funding priorities in early childhood, child abuse prevention/intervention, foster youth, afterschool, mentoring and hunger relief program areas. More than 500 community members and 150 service providers participated in the community engagement process through surveys, focus groups and interviews. Participants engaged in the process in more than 25 languages, and included youth and parents with disabilities, foster youth and foster parents, immigrants and refugees, and people who identify as Black, Indigenous and of color.
PCL’s 13-member Community Council helped design the community engagement process and distill the funding priorities based on the results. They also worked with staff to develop the funding application and scoring criteria. The community engagement results, and draft application and scoring criteria were also shared with agencies providing services to children and families to provide feedback.
PCL conducted significant outreach to organizations providing services for children and families, and received 168 applications in the funding round (45% increase compared to 2019 funding round). The number of applicants that were not currently funded by PCL increased by more than 200% compared to the 2019 funding round. Submitted applications were scored by 91 trained community volunteers (4 per application).
The Community Council reviewed characteristics of the applicant pool (program area, focus populations, size of applicant organization and current PCL funding status) and further prioritized application characteristics for funding. Staff developed funding recommendations based on these priorities, application score, program feasibility, past performance for currently funded programs, assuring a diversity of organizations to serve the community and balancing services for priority populations.
After receiving application scores and staff recommendations, applicants had the option to submit testimony (written, or audio/video recording) in support of their applications to the Allocation Committee. Testimony was provided to Allocation Committee members in advance of funding decisions.
The Children’s Levy assumes that applicants may testify before City Council regarding this item, but does not have specific knowledge of who or how many.
100% Renewable Goal
Not Applicable
Economic and Real Estate Development Analysis
Analysis provided by Prosper Portland
An Economic and Real Estate Development Impact Analysis was not submitted for this proposed action. Pursuant to City Council Resolution 37664, Prosper Portland staff has reviewed the action and agree that it does not require an Economic and Real Estate Development Impact Analysis.
Financial and Budget Analysis
Analysis provided by City Budget Office
This ordinance has no financial impact on the City General Fund, but approves the disbursement of almost $71 million via 95 grant agreements to Portland-metro area organizations. The grants are funded through a local option property tax levy specifcally for the Portland Chidlren's Levy, currently running from 2024 to 2029. This grant pool will fund three years of awards across fiscal years 2025-26 to 2027-28.
Document History
Document number: 2025-207
President's referral: City Council