The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) announced plans to jump into the pay for success ocean with both feet. It will be involved in financing two PFS projects in California, according to a statement issued this week by the organization.
“For too long, funding has been a constraint in implementing necessary improvements to many of our social services,” said the statement. “[PFS] financing has the potential to improve the way we serve communities and individuals by bringing together investors, governments, and service providers.”
This is hardly a surprise. The Imprint reported last December that NCCD and PFS heavyweights Third Sector Capital had received $250,000 from the California Endowment to conduct “feasibility studies on the viability of utilizing Pay for Success programs to deliver social services in the areas of juvenile restorative justice and foster care.”
It would seem from this NCCD blog post on May 19 that California Endowment has come through with another $250,000 to move forward with local feasibility studies in two counties. Which ones? Not specified, for the moment. The announcement was light on details, but anyone who likes can tune into a webinar the organization has planned for today on the subject.
Based on previous conversations with NCCD officials, Youth Services Insider is pretty sure we’ll hear about a juvenile restorative justice PFS project in Alameda County and a project in Southern California aimed at youths involved in both the juvenile and child welfare systems.
YSI will follow up with more details after the discussion tomorrow. But here’s the thing to note even before that: These projects will be the trial for an organization that has sincere interest in becoming the lead knowledge intermediary on youth-related PFS projects. Not just in California; NCCD very much has designs on becoming a go-to partner that any big PFS venture in the space would think about calling.
NCCD has offices in Oakland, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisc., and is led by President Alex Busansky.
Youth Services Insider is mostly written by Chronicle Editor-in-Chief John Kelly.