PLY: Another super-crunchy day with a brilliant first article from Fast Company leading the way – happy reading:
A Revolution Of Outcomes: How Pay-For-Success Contracts Are Changing Public Services
FastCo.Exist
Across the country, and around the world, governments have been experimenting with a radical new way of delivering social services. They’ve begun “paying for success.”
Pay-for-success (PFS) refers to when governments collaborate with outside investors who put up money for particular interventions that save money in the long run, such as therapies to help homeless mothers get back on their feet or programs to stop parolees from landing back in jail. The contracts, agreed between officials and “impact” funders and delivered by third-party nonprofits, pay returns if the interventions meet pre-agreed targets—for example, a reduction in the rate of recidivism by a certain amount. In theory, PFS represents a win-win for everyone: governments get to spend less money, while investors make a profit and have the satisfaction of facilitating new types of programs.
There are now seven active pay-for-success contracts in the U.S., with dozens more on the drawing board. For example, New York State and Massachusetts have initiatives to reduce recidivism. Chicago has a program to raise education standards among disadvantaged pre-school children. And Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has a contract to reduce the number of days children of homeless mothers spend in foster care. At the same time, there are at least 30 open pay-for-success contracts in the U.K.—which introduced the first contract in 2010—and a few more in Australia, India and elsewhere.
A More Accountable Way To Help Homeless
Anne Stuhldreher – Sacramento Bee
There are about 6,500 homeless people in Santa Clara County on any given night. About one-third are classified as “chronically homeless,” like Hyatt was. Too often, they shuffle between the streets, emergency rooms and jails. Their problems frequently worsen, and the costs add up. The county spent $3 billion on homeless services from 2007 to 2012; 5 percent of the homeless accounted for almost half the spending – an average of more than $100,000 a year.
Gary Graves, the county’s chief operating officer, wanted its programs to measurably improve the lives of the homeless and become more accountable. So it’s no surprise the county is the first in California to embark on a bold new social experiment to help the chronically homeless. Called “Pay for Success,” it is designed to drive government spending toward programs that work best for people who need them most.
There are only seven such projects underway nationally. A government contracts with a nonprofit with a strong track record to deliver agreed-upon results, such as keeping homeless people housed and stable. The government does not pay until the results are achieved. Instead, foundations, banks and other outside groups provide the upfront funding.
Akron Mayoral Candidates Attend Arts Forum, Agree City Should Help Preserve E.J. Thomas Hall
Stephanie Warsmith – Ohio.com
The three Akron mayoral candidates agreed Monday night in an arts forum that the city should have a role in preserving E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall as a venue for local and national performances.
Eddie Sipplen, the Republican mayoral candidate, went further than the two Democratic opponents, saying the city should help “subsidize E.J. to ensure it goes into the future.”
All three candidates highlighted the importance of continuing arts instruction in schools. Sipplen suggested the possibility of a social impact bond — a financing option he pointed to as a possibility previously to help fund Akron’s sewer project — to support the arts in schools.