March 28, 2008
TAKING THE FUN OUT OF FUNDING
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And Communities of Color funding allocation will start...soon |
After almost ten months of City Council-imposed delays, 31 organizations finally received letters of notification Monday that they will receive $40,000-minimum grants as part of the $2.6 million HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program, better known as the Communities of Color (COC) funding. COC dollars are intended to combat HIV/AIDS mortality and morbidity rates in minority communities in New York City, but the City Council has undermined the effective use of the money by holding up its release: AIDS groups will only have until June 30, 2008—at the very most three months—to spend all their COC money, despite the fact that the programs it supports often run year-round.
A day after the grant letters were delivered, Public Health Solutions, formerly the Medical and Health Research Association (MHRA), announced a Request for Applications (RFA), for organizations from Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island to apply for COC funding. The timing is not a coincidence: As the Update reported last month, millions in COC money appears to have been delayed until City Council could ensure that PHS would reach out to AIDS groups in those three boroughs—and appease the Council Members that represent them. The new RFA process is expected to add about 20 more organizations to the list of groups getting COC money. Depending on how many new groups actually apply by the April 8 deadline, the 31 organizations that are already set to receive funding could see their awards increase. If your organization would like to apply for a grant, for the full RFA, click here.
Sixteen of the organizations receiving COC grants were funded last year. In order to grow the number of groups participating in the program, the City handed out more and smaller awards, allowing it to fund 15 more groups that were denied money last year.
Guillermo Cruz, Jr., Deputy Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration, Public Health Solutions/HIV Care Services assured the Update that PHS will speedily expedite the new RFAs. The groups that have received funding in the past have yet to get their contracts, but won't have to submit new proposals to receive funding. New groups will be encouraged to apply with a pared-down RFA—purposely not called a Request for Proposals (RFP) to highlight this fact— composed mostly of yes and no questions.
"We're trying to do this as simply as possible," Cruz said. "We're very sensitive to the fact that the notifications are going out very late. It's too late to process a full RFP for this."
System is broken
The damage is already done. Grantees will then have to go on spending sprees until June 30, 2008 to use the money that was intended to span a year.
"It's a shame, because Communities of Color funding is a great initiative and I think organizations as a whole have done very well with the money," said Chris Norwood, executive director of Health People Inc. in the Bronx, which will receive a grant again this year. "Last year we did outreach like SWAT teams and got people into care. Even though it's not a large sum, we've been able to get a lot accomplished."
But as Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Thomas Frieden told the City Council a nine month delay in funding "is not a process that leads itself to effective programming."
And unfortunately, as community-based organizations that regularly deal with City Council-financed programs know, the hold-up isn't unique. African Services Committee Co-executive Director Kim Nichols said her group receives about $600,000 in City Council money, but, thanks to chronic funding delays, it must find its own advance funding for its treatment adherence program, legal services, ESL and other programs. "We've spent tens of thousands on late fees and services. I shudder to think how much I spend on that over the years. We incur all kinds of interest and fees in borrowing money."
"I don't think we need to say, 'This is just how bureaucracy has to work,'" Nichols said. "The federal government does a better job with their contracts, and they have a lot more to process. It's a problem specific to New York City."