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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.

Children’s Levy Goals

Non-hunger relief programs serve between 8,500-10,000 children annually, with 75%-80% identifying as Black, Indigenous or of color, 35-40% living/going to school in East Portland, and 40%-45% from homes where the primary language is not English.  Hunger relief programs serve 12,000-17,000 children annually.  In 2021-22, programs achieved the following outcomes:

• Early Childhood Programs: 87% of children met expected developmental milestones; 91% of those not on track for developmental milestones were referred for additional support; 97% of parents met parenting goals.
• Child Abuse Prevention/Intervention Programs: 86% of parents met parenting practice goals; 86% of parents reported increased safety and stability.
• Foster Care Programs: 96% of youth met academic goals; 100% of youth met positive youth development goals.
• After School Programs: 95% of children/youth met youth development outcomes.
• Mentoring Programs: 97% of youth met school engagement outcomes.
• Small Grants: 92% of youth met academic goals.

Community involvement

The Levy provides 3-year initial grants in a competitive process, with the possibility of a 2-year renewal depending on program performance.  The 2-year renewal grants requested for Council approval were all initially funded in the 2019-2020 competitive funding round. 

Extensive community engagement was done before the 2019-20 competitive funding round in which these renewal grants were initially funded.  Please see the memo for details on the 2019 community engagement process. Briefly, Empress Rules Equity Consulting to designed and conducted a community engagement process to inform the 2019-20 funding round. They engaged over 500 people using surveys and focus groups, analyzed their input, and reported the results. Diverse community members gave input on qualities and features services should have, and preferred types of services in each program area. Participants in the public engagement process included youth and parents with disabilities, foster youth and foster parents, immigrants and refugees, people who primarily speak languages other than English and people who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color.  Translation, interpretation and other accommodations were provided to assure broad participation of community members.  The community engagement report focused on equity and inclusion practices and advised funding services that:

• Are culturally relevant, responsive and focused, and trauma informed;

• Listen and respond to the voice and preferences of youth and families;

• Pay attention to accessibility and address barriers to access including hours of  

  operation, location and transportation;

• Employ staff who are of and grounded in the cultural communities they serve.

PCL relied on these results in drafting the Request for Investment (funding application) in each program area, and in creating the scoring criteria for proposals.  Public input (written and oral) was invited and received on the draft Requests for Investment and scoring criteria before publication.  PCL recruited and trained 65 community members to score RFIs, and applicants provided written and recorded oral testimony to the Allocation Committee after receiving application scores and staff recommendations, and before the Allocation Committee made decisions. 

The Children’s Levy is not aware of specific groups or individuals who plan to testify before City Council regarding this item.