Healthy and Safe Communities

Summary of Objective Implementation Status

Anti-Racist Results-Based Accountability (AR-RBA) will be used for planning, reporting, and monitoring/tracking of performance measures of County programs and contracts with plans for complete adoption in the next 3-5 years. By incorporating AR-RBA into programs and contracted services, the County will more effectively evaluate program performance and participant outcomes.

In September 2022, Upstream Investments published a two-year Results-Based Accountability implementation update documenting the progress in meeting this objective and in Safety Net Departments’ ability to successfully scale and support the broader adoption of RBA in County issued contracts. The report highlighted the challenge of needing to build capacity at the contract management level in order to fully complete the RBA cycle with fidelity.

On April 25, 2023, Upstream Investments and the Office of Equity submitted a memorandum to the Board of Supervisors detailing the shift from Results-Based Accountability to Anti-Racist Results-Based Accountability, in alignment with the Racial Equity and Social Justice pillar of the Board’s Strategic Plan. In addition, the Upstream Policy Committee adopted this change on November 18, 2022. To support this shift, incorporation of AR-RBA into new contracts was put on hold for one year to support the transition from RBA to AR-RBA in existing contracts. On September 27, 2023, Upstream Investments and the Office of Equity also presented the details of the shift and specific support requests to the Safety Net Collaborative.

AR-RBA differs from RBA because of the focus on collecting consistent race-ethnicity data and deeper analysis of the data using a root-cause analysis. The collection of race/ethnicity data and the ability to disaggregate data by race/ethnicity requires additional training and support for both County staff and Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Additional staff support and dedicated time is also needed to support contract managers and grantees for periodic turn the curve conversations (one on one meetings to review data and a cornerstone of the AR-RBA process). An Upstream Investments staff member (.5 FTE PPEA) has been dedicated to support the cross-departmental implementation. In addition, a time-limited position on the Office of Equity team was approved in February 2023 and will begin the position December 2023.

Currently, Upstream Investments is assessing demographic data collection efforts across the Safety Net Departments in order to recommend a consistent approach and the appropriate support needed to ensure the collection of race/ethnicity data in alignment with the implementation of AR-RBA.

Key Milestone Update

Safety Net Departments contracts that are using RBA will be shifted to AR-RBA with full adoption by 2026 for all departments.

The number of County contracts using RBA grew from 6 contracts in FY 20-21 to 53 contracts in FY 22-23. Five County departments and eight CBO partners are using RBA (shifting to AR-RBA) for program planning, data reporting and outcomes monitoring. Additionally, 27 partner organizations are using AR-RBA for data reporting and outcomes monitoring in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Community Resilience Program (CRP). This brings the total number of contracts to 80.

In FY 22-23, 9 training sessions were offered to County departments and CBOs to support RBA and AR-RBA implementation (including for ARPA CRP). A total of 192 unique participants attended. As of 11/17/23, 6 additional training sessions for AR-RBA and demographic data collection were held during FY 23-24.

Coordination and Partnership Update

In addition to offering ongoing training opportunities on AR-RBA implementation in partnership with the Office of Equity, Upstream Investments staff convene a cross-department AR-RBA Workgroup representing the Human Services Department, Department of Health Services, Probation Department, Community Development Commission, Child Support Services, and Public Defender’s Office on a quarterly basis. The workgroup supports the implementation of AR-RBA across departments, with the goals of launching and maintaining the Clear Impact Scorecard, providing space for group members to grow their AR-RBA knowledge, offering technical assistance, and bringing in CBO voices.

Community, Equity and Climate Update

To support the County’s commitment to equity, Upstream Investments partnered with the Office of Equity in a year-long training with Equity & Results to deepen our understanding of equity in relation to the implementation of RBA and to shift the practice to center anti-racism in the RBA process. This new practice was adopted as the foundation for distribution and monitoring the ARPA-funded CRP. As a result, all 27 ARPA contracts used Anti-Racist Results-Based Accountability to develop performance measures and continue to use AR-RBA for contract monitoring. All new county contracts will shift to using AR-RBA and expanded data collection to capture race/ethnicity data.

At the November 2022 Upstream Investments Policy Committee meeting, the committee voted to adopt AR-RBA and an updated work plan expanding the training, technical assistance and data collection efforts to be equity-centered.

Funding Narrative

In requesting Strategic Plan funding support for year two, HSD Upstream Investments staff worked with the Office of Equity as well as the County Administrator’s Office to consolidate all RBA activities and work into one funding request (1 FTE PPEA and 1 FTE Admin Aide) for ongoing support of Anti-Racist-RBA implementation and to meet the goal of full adoption by 2026. Part of that funding request (1 FTE PPEA with the Office of Equity) was approved and the position will start December 2023. One PPEA located in HSD continues to support this work half-time.