BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2268
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Date of Hearing: April 24, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
AB 2268 (Eng) - As Amended: March 29, 2012
SUBJECT : Services for underserved populations: funding models
SUMMARY : Requires state and local agencies to create mechanism
to supplement place-based and regional funding strategies for
health and human services, and educational services.
Specifically, this bill :
1)States legislative findings and declarations, as follows:
a) Place-based and regional funding strategies define
specific geographic areas of moderate size and focus
resources to those places, typically through the funding of
community-based providers, to achieve measurable outcomes
over time.
b) State and local agencies using place-based or regional
funding strategies represent billions of dollars for
California communities, and shortcomings in the approach
have profound effects on community groups that are outside
of, or are underrepresented within, targeted neighborhoods.
c) Place-based and regional funding strategies have had
mixed results in terms of, for example, reduction of
poverty and economic revitalization of targeted
neighborhoods, yet these strategies remain attractive to
state and local agencies and are experiencing a new wave of
popularity.
d) Community-based organizations are impacted by limited
access to resources, which results in inequitable capacity
and infrastructure, which, in turn, perpetuates the limited
access to resources.
2)Declares the intent of the Legislature to require state and
local agencies to create and implement new mechanisms to
improve the equitable distribution of public resources to
traditionally underserved communities.
3)Defines terms, as follows:
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a) "Community-based organization" (CBO) means a private
nonprofit organization that is representative of a
community group or a significant segment of a community
group that directly provides health and human services or
educational services to meet community needs.
b) "Community group" means a population that is defined by
affinity, not geography, which may include, but is not
limited to, ethnic populations; persons with disabilities;
veterans; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
community; and underserved communities that have
demonstrated barriers to access to health and human
services or educational services, or both.
c) "Place-based funding" means the utilization of a
framework that includes building upon local infrastructure
and saturating an area with resources with the goal of
achieving measurable outcomes and facilitating a
community-driven investment in the regional plan and the
identification of corresponding services.
d) "Regional funding" means the utilization of specific
geographic boundaries for the allocation of resources.
4)Requires state and local agencies to do both of the following
in relation to funding CBOs for the provision of health and
human services and educational services:
a) Create a mechanism to allow CBOs outside targeted
boundaries under place-based or regional funding strategies
to work with service-eligible community groups within the
targeted boundaries; and,
b) Create a mechanism to allow service-eligible community
groups outside of targeted boundaries under place-based or
regional funding strategies to access services from CBOs
within the targeted boundaries.
5)States legislative intent that these mechanisms supplement
place-based and regional funding strategies used by state and
local agencies.
6)Requires state and local agencies to do all of the following
in creating the mechanisms described in paragraph 4) above:
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a) Ensure that culturally competent CBOs serving
geographically dispersed cultural or language community
groups can receive sufficient resources to meet community
needs;
b) Base needs analysis on disaggregated data that identify
disparities in health care and other services, taking into
consideration that communities are not always tied to a
specific neighborhood;
c) Engage community leaders and community members for their
expertise and recommendations when developing these types
of funding initiatives;
d) Invest in community capacity and infrastructure building
through supporting the development of community-based
organizations serving underrepresented or high-need
community groups;
e) Ensure that language access and cultural considerations
are at the forefront of program development and not an
afterthought; and,
f) Ensure that community-based organizations being funded
demonstrate linguistic and cultural competency to serve and
work with all service-eligible residents and communities
within the targeted place or region.
7)Authorizes CBOs seeking funding to form partnerships to ensure
capacity to serve segments of the community that a particular
CBO may not have the capacity to serve.
EXISTING LAW authorizes various state and local agencies to fund
or administer programs to provide services, such as public
health information, social services, and education and child
care resources, to eligible persons.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author,
For over ten years, publicly supported government and
philanthropic funding organizations have been moving
toward "regional" and/or "place-based" approaches for
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education, health, and human services planning and
resource allocation. Place-based and regional funding
strategies share the similarity of defining specific
geographic areas of moderate size and focusing
resources to those places, typically through the
funding of community-based providers, to achieve
measurable outcomes over time.
However, these strategies have had mixed results in
terms of desired outcomes such as reduction of poverty
and economic revitalization of targeted neighborhoods.
Community groups such as ethnic populations, the
disabled, veterans, and LGBTs, often do not register
as statistically significant within a pre-defined
place based area or service planning boundary. Ethnic
populations such as Asian Americans, Native Hawaiian,
and Other Pacific Islanders problems are often hidden
within aggregated data which does not reflect an
accurate picture of a specific community's need.
The genesis of this bill was, in part, input provided at an
October 2011 public hearing of the California Commission on
Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs, and the findings and
recommendations described in a follow-up report issued in
January 2012 by the National Center for the Preservation of
Democracy, Addressing the Gaps of Place-Based and Regional
Approaches. Among the report's findings are the following:
Asian American (AA) and Native Hawaiian and Pacific
Islander (NHPI) communities are defined by cultural
affinity, not geography.
Aggregated statistical data mask needs of AA and NHPI
communities.
Cultural competency is not simply language skills, but
requires community knowledge and trust.
Building community capacity and infrastructure is
critical for effective service delivery to AA and NHPIs.
Place-based funding threatens the sustainability of
culturally competent organizations already effectively
serving AA and NHPIs.
Recommendations from community presenters at the hearing
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included the following:
Create mechanisms for community organizations outside of
targeted boundaries to work with service-eligible
populations within the targeted place or region.
Provide population-based, as well as place-based,
funding to ensure culturally competent organizations
serving geographically dispersed cultural/language
communities can receive sufficient resources to meet
critical community needs.
Base needs analysis on disaggregated data that identify
disparities in healthcare and other services, taking into
consideration that communities are not always tied to a
specific neighborhood.
Enable community-based organizations that work with
specific populations to define "high-need" for their
communities, as that definition may go beyond the
traditional criteria of annual household income and similar
socio-economic indicators.
Include AA and NHPI community leaders and community
members when developing these types of funding initiatives.
Invest in community capacity and infrastructure building
through supporting the development of community
organizations serving AA and NHPIs.
Ensure that place-based initiatives include a process
where language access and cultural considerations are at
the forefront of program development and not an
afterthought.
Ensure that organizations being funded demonstrate
linguistic and cultural competency to serve and work with
all eligible residents and communities within the place or
region.
Encourage organizations that do not have the capacity to
serve a segment of the population, to partner with the
organizations that have that demonstrated competence.
The author provides the following example to illustrate the
problem with a solely place-based or regional model:
The Samoan community in Carson continues to contend
with low educational attainment, a high rate of gang
violence, and low income to poverty level living
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conditions. Yet, the City of Carson is not viewed as
a high need region by some funding institutions. As a
result of place based and regional funding models,
these communities will continue to face a disparate
effect on access to resources. This results in
inequitable capacity and infrastructure funding which
further perpetuates the limited access to resources.
Despite the mixed outcomes, place-based/regional
strategies remain attractive to funders and are
experiencing a new wave of popularity.
This bill, the author says, would improve the equitable
distribution of public resources to traditionally under-served
communities by requiring state and local agencies that fund
community based organizations for health and human services and
educational services to establish additional mechanisms to
address high need communities that do not live or work in the
prescribed boundaries of a regional or place based model of
funding.
This bill would address the concerns with solely place-based and
regional funding strategies by requiring state and local
agencies that fund community based organizations (CBO) for
health and human services and educational services to create and
implement mechanisms that do the following: Ensure that
culturally competent CBOs serving geographically dispersed
cultural or language community groups can receive sufficient
resources to meet critical community needs; base needs analyses
on disaggregated data that identify disparities in health care
and other services; take into consideration that communities are
not always tied to a specific neighborhood; engage community
leaders and community members for their expertise and
recommendations when developing these types of funding
initiatives; invest in community capacity and infrastructure
building through supporting the development of CBOs serving
underrepresented or high need community groups; and ensure that
CBOs being funded demonstrate linguistic and cultural competency
to serve and work with all service-eligible residents and
communities within the targeted place or region.
This bill would help to ensure greater access to funding for
health and human services and educational programs by groups
that are often excluded when funding eligibility is determined
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by geography. Implementation and determining compliance may be
complicated, however. It is not clear, for example, how broad
or inclusive the alternative strategies must be in specific
instances, and in what circumstances they must be employed. In
addition, funding eligibility is often determined by the funding
source, rather than local agencies, which may be incompatible
with the requirements of this bill.
DOUBLE REFERRAL . This bill has been double-referred. Should
this bill pass out of this committee, it will be referred to the
Assembly Local Government Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Asian and Pacific Islander California Action Network (APIsCAN)
(sponsor)
Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council
Asian Pacific Community Fund
EndOil
Equality California
Guam Communication Network (GCN)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Gelber / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089