Chair Stevens questions DYCD on timeline for new Beacon RFP

Well, it's not only my favorite topic.

They have a special place in my heart because if you've come to the many hearings that I've had, I've always talked about I spent a lot of time running community centers.

And I just feel like we did all the work.

But, you know, I thought that was the best place.

But let's jump into some of these questions.

DYCD hasn't had a new beacon RFP since 2017.

What is the agency's timeline for leasing a new concept paper and RFP for Beacon Community Centers?

And what factors contributed to the delay?

And I also want to put out there, we're still in the middle of the after school RFP.

So.

I get it if you're like, girl, I don't want to hear RFP.

But I got to ask the questions because this is important because that is a long timeline.

And I think that part of the issue and confusion around this RFP is because they have them so long.

People are like, wait, I don't want change.

And so not having RFPs doesn't work either.

So I really would love to hear what's...

Is there a plan?

Are there talks?

Is that in the work?

And trying to figure out where we're at with that.

Because beacons is one of the things I actually love because

When you think about we can't build, we don't have that many community centers.

So this allows us to activate the schools in our community to now be community centers.

So I think that in spaces that don't have community centers, we should be looking at using more schools.

And I remember the last mayor, we had talked about that, but that never came to fruition.

Whatever.

I appreciate the question, and beacons are dear to my heart.

I've been working with beacons for over 20 years, so definitely dear to my heart.

Beacon community centers are incredibly important to the neighborhoods they serve.

They operate, as you know, as a true community hub, serving young people and families.

And you've seen the increase in young people engagement in the PMMR and the MMR and adult engagement.

That's a testament to the need of these services in this community.

And so, you know, our commissioner, and she's testified before, but we are committed to releasing a concept paper at some point to really, you know, realign the model.

And so we want to be intentional about what the services are, you know, the model itself.

And we're going to take deeper dives on that.

We're going to really look at the funding.

And be intentional about what is the funding, what is the true cost of operating.

a robust, holistic community center that not just only serves young people, but we're serving adults and we're serving seniors and we're serving the larger community.

And so we really want to look at what does it take to operate?

What are the staffing needs?

What is that structure?

And we are looking across all of our...

Our entire footprint of DYCD, fatherhood, workforce.

We're looking at all of those different pieces and really looking at the funding and figuring out what does that look like in a community center.