TITLE
Recommendation to direct City Manager to work with the Long Beach Health and Human Services Department Office of Youth Development to establish the Long Beach Youth Fund, utilizing Measure US revenue and additional revenue sources.
DISCUSSION
On November 3rd the city of Long Beach passed Measure US by a margin of 57.02% to 42.92%. This action increases the city’s local general purpose Barrel Tax from 15 cents to 30 cent per barrel beginning in October of 2021 generating an estimated $1.6 million in additional revenue.
On September 15th 2020, the Long Beach City Council unanimously passed a resolution dedicating the funding of the then proposed Measure US. This resolution identified three priorities for funding; Climate Change and the Environment, Community Health, and Children and Youth Service Programs. Specifically, funding was approved to prioritize funding youth programing, youth equity opportunities, youth job training, and implementing youth-focused strategic plans.
Long Beach has, in recent years, heard from the Long Beach community regarding the need to prioritize funding for youth programming citywide. In 2018, the City Council received and filed The Invest in Youth Report where youth leaders across Long Beach spoke to the multiple challenges they face and their vision for youth in the city to live their best lives. As a part of the Fiscal Year 2019 adopted budget, the Long Beach City Council took action and allocated $200,000 for the development of a Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults including a five-year blueprint focused on the development of young people ages 10 to 24. On February 8th 2021, the City Council was presented with the proposed citywide Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults which included five goals. The first goal, youth development, contains two objectives; supporting the implementation of the City’s Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative, and leveraging CARES act funding to support COVID-19 youth-focuse...
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