Directors hear report on community programs

LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Board of Directors received a report Tuesday from the city’s Department of Community Programs on its activities last year.

Working with the city’s Commission on Children, Youth and Families, the department oversees the deployment of $5 million annually on programs meant to encourage positive outcomes for youth and families in the city.

The reentry program assisted 220 participants with things like employment assistance and opportunities to have their record expunged, “just whatever it is that they need to succeed,” Dana Dossett, director of the Department of Community Programs, told city board members during an agenda-setting meeting.

The “one-stop shop” for offenders operates out of 3012 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Little Rock, Dossett said.

School-based intervention work takes place on a daily basis at four schools, she said.

Officials found that the program served 257 participants believed to be at risk of failing or dropping out of school during the last quarter of 2023 after they began collecting data last October, according to the report.

The department’s streetbased intervention team attempts to reduce criminal activity and violence “by going to the different hotspots that are identified through the Little Rock Police Department,” Dossett said. “We focus on ages 13 to 30, but of course we interface with different people of all ages as we help them with whatever resources they may need.”

Close to 9,000 contacts were made last year, she said.

After-school programs have been renamed positive prevention programs, she said. Last year, the department worked with five entities, including Our House and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Arkansas, in an effort to serve two age groups with the programming: 6 to 12 and 13 to 18.

Using a portion of the city’s direct aid from the American Rescue Plan Act, the department contracted with 10 different agencies or entities for community violence reduction services that reached more than 5,680 people, according to the report.

The city board in 2021 agreed to spend $1.5 million of the federal money on violence reduction programs.

A separate category of neighborhood safety programs saw 460 participants at five sites, Dossett said.

The day-labor program operated by the organization FAB44 resulted in almost 5,000 hours worked and 72 3-1-1 requests completed, Dossett said.

A total of 459 interns between the ages of 16 and 21 served as part of the city’s Summer Youth Employment Opportunity, which placed them at 127 different worksites, according to the report. Job fields included legal, child care, hospitality and more.

The city recently increased the hourly wage for interns to $11, Dossett said at one point in response to at-large City Director Joan Adcock.

In his 2024 State of the City address, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. announced that the city would expand the internship program beyond the summer months. Starting in 2025, young people will be able to participate yearround, Scott said, dubbing the new apprenticeship program “Little Rock Career Climb.”

Following Dossett’s presentation, Vice Mayor Kathy Webb, who serves on the Commission on Children, Youth and Families, said that not only was Dossett’s department “as strong or stronger than it’s ever been, I think the commission is stronger than it’s ever been.”

The commission “takes its fiduciary responsibility very seriously. I say that to my colleagues on the board,” Webb added. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s a small contract or a large contract.”