TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and all necessary documents and any subsequent amendments, including amending the contract amount, with the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, to accept and expend grant funding in the amount of $175,252, for the Innovative Reponses to Marginalized Victims Program, for the period of January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, with the option to extend the agreement for three additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
Since 2018, the City of Long Beach (City) Health and Human Services Department (Health Department) has operated the My Sister's Keeper Intervention and Empowerment (MSK) Program to support marginalized victims of human trafficking in the City. The MSK Program partners with any person who has suffered physical, sexual, financial, or emotional harm resulting from human trafficking exploitation.
The mission of the MSK Program is to implement a victim-centered, multidisciplinary response to human trafficking in Long Beach through trauma-informed victim services, collaborative investigation and prosecution. The program’s goal is to reduce victimization and the commercialization of sex and labor exploitation by using court diversion efforts coupled with comprehensive services such as access to case management, educational empowerment, and employment services, offered by our network of providers. The awarded funding will also provide financial resources to the City Prosecutor’s Office to offer court-mandated linkage to services, with access to tattoo removal, transportation, emergency food services, and access to trauma recovery services offered by Memorial Care Trauma Recovery Center. This funding also supports the MSK Program Manager role who coordinates the provider network, making these services available to victims of human trafficking.
The Health Department currently serves as the backbone entity ...
Click here for full text