Committee endorses state grant for Hartford's youth diversion team, will forward to full council

Assistant Majority Leader Amica Hernandez, chair of the Hartford Labor, Education, Workforce and Youth Development Committee, opened the February virtual meeting and invited Christina Baldwin, director of the City of Hartford Department of Families, Children and Youth, and Chris Marceli, assistant director for youth services, to present a state grant for the city's youth diversion team.

"This is our youth diversion team grant, formerly known as the juvenile review board grant," Baldwin said, framing the program as part of the city's Youth Service Bureau (YSB) responsibilities under state law. Marceli said the diversion team offers an alternative path for justice-involved youth and clarified eligibility: referrals are for arrestable offenses and families must accept diversion services.

Marceli described intake before a community panel that sets services, accountability steps and potential restitution, and said the Village for Families and Children has served as Hartford's subcontracted provider for many years. On the program budget, Marceli said the current two-year grant totals "about $254,000," with most funding allocated to caseworkers who provide direct services.

Councilman John Gail asked whether the funds are a passthrough to the subcontractor; Baldwin replied the state pays the municipality, which then subcontracts and retains no administrative cut of the grant. "We manage it," she said, adding the city performs oversight, data collection and compliance and requires quarterly reporting from the subcontractor to both the city and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.

Committee members requested sample quarterly reports. Baldwin agreed to provide the last four quarters of reporting and said the city will supply readable narrative and data summaries that show referrals, enrollments, panel assessments and successful completions. She also said recidivism metrics are not currently available from the program and that the state is working on a uniform approach to recidivism for youth diversion teams.

After brief additional questions about procurement and the subcontractor's capacity to handle caseload surges, a committee member moved to forward the item to full council with a favorable recommendation. The motion was seconded and the committee voted unanimously in favor; the chair said the item will appear on a subsequent council agenda.

The committee also discussed timing: services began July 1 while state reimbursements often arrive later in the fiscal year; Baldwin said the city evaluates providers' capacity to front costs and strives to reimburse subcontractors for services provided.

The committee's action was procedural: it endorsed acceptance of state grant funds and recommended that the full council approve the grant agreement and associated subrecipient arrangements. The subcontractor identified in the presentation was the Village for Families and Children; the grant source is the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.