Since 1999, the City has been the lead agency for the FOCUS Collaborative, which provides the community with family preservation services at the MPFRC.  The majority of the funding for the Center comes through a grant from the County of Orange Social Services Agency, FaCT Commission.  The original grant received in 1999 was extended in 2003, then in 2005, in 2010 and once again in 2015 as part of a competitive grant process. 

On May 12, 2015, City Council approved an Agreement with County of Orange to receive FaCT grant funding for the MPFRC that covered a five-year period from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2020. The grant funding for each one-year period is $425,000, for a total amount of $2,125,000 for the five-year period. The City provides case management, clinical supervision, information and referral, community outreach services, and teen programming. Other family services are provided through the FOCUS Collaborative that involves partner agencies from the community.  The funded partners include Interval House, which provide domestic violence prevention and treatment services; Boystown, which provide counseling services and parent education; and Team of Advocates for Special Kids (TASK), which provide parent workshops, and IEP clinics and services. 

In mid June 2017, City staff was notified that Boystown, a FOCUS Collaborative partner, was closing their California office and would no longer provide counseling and parent education services at MPFRC. As lead agency, City staff worked diligently with the County office to identify a new partner agency to fulfill services that Boystown will no longer provide. 

Attached is an Amendment to the Agreement with the County of Orange Social Services Agency in which the Child Guidance Center (CGC) agrees to be the new FOCUS Collaborative partner at MPFRC and will provide crisis, individual, family and group counseling services. Since CGC was not able to provide the parent education component of the Agreement, also outlined in the Amendment, the City of Garden Grove agrees to absorb that service.

As lead agency, the City oversees the program and fiscal operations of $425,000 annually of services through management of the FOCUS Collaborative.  The City will be absorbing the parent education component that is an additional annual cost of $3,000. During fiscal year 2017-2018, there is approximately $2,000 in grant funding to cover this expense, the City will absorb an amount of $1,000 within the existing Community Services budget. For the remaining two fiscal years of the Agreement, staff will need to identify funding for this program expense.  It is expected that the required funding will be achieved through grant or other partnership opportunities within the existing budget. 

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Approve the attached Amendment to the Agreement with the County of Orange Social Services Agency for Families and Communities Together (FaCT) grant funding for the Magnolia Park Family Resource Center (MPFRC); and

• Authorize the City Manager to sign the Amendment on behalf of the City, including making any modifications during the contract period for the operation and implementation of the contract services.

By:  Janet Pelayo, Community Services Manager