St. Petersburg Social Services Hubs

Guiding Principles

PCF will exhibit transparency with all transactions from this fund while providing an opportunity for the community to observe and participate in our collective efforts.

PCF will share accountability with our grantees for the outcomes of this project and provide an opportunity to learn from both success and failure.

PCF will act with urgency to ensure funds are deployed to organizations in a responsible yet rapid fashion to meet critical needs without unnecessary delay.

PCF will ensure accessibility to nonprofits of a variety of sizes and abilities to ensure funds reach deeply into the community to provide the necessary support.

PCF will apply a lens of equity to deliberations and decisions to ensure the needs of our most vulnerable community members are addressed.

This process is different from other programs that PCF operates. It is a vendor procurement process than a grantmaking program. PCF encourages you to thoroughly read through this webpage to determine if your organization is a good fit for this opportunity.

Overview

Who: Pinellas Community Foundation, in collaboration with the City of St. Petersburg, is launching an initiative to support residents of St. Petersburg and local nonprofits’ ability to serve them. This project is being supported by federal funding under ARPA SLFRF awarded to the City of St. Petersburg as a direct recipient with application ID SLT-2055, by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

What: This initiative has two parts: 1) Community Support Hubs (“Hubs”) to address the need for mental healthcare and other services in St. Pete neighborhood(s), and 2) a Nonprofit Incubator, which will support small nonprofits with administrative and other needs.

1. One organization (“the Lead Nonprofit”) will be chosen to operate the Hubs. The Hubs will have three main functions: licensed care from therapists, neighborhood outreach, and resource navigation/case management. Hubs will have access to emergency funds to quickly alleviate crisis situations in order to stabilize the individual or family.
2. A second organization will be chosen to operate the Nonprofit Incubator, which will provide administrative support, evaluation and research services, and other assistance as needed to help build the capacity of the Lead Nonprofit and the local nonprofit community.

Why: COVID-19 increased financial and social stress on our community and has led to an increased need for mental health support. Neighborhood-based social services provided in a comfortable, trusted environment will help address these concerns in the St. Petersburg community. In addition, the local nonprofit community has repeatedly expressed the need to increase their administrative capacity in order to better deliver their services.

Where: This initiative will take place within the City of St. Petersburg.

When: This initiative will begin in early 2023 and last through the end of 2026. For specific dates, please see the process timeline.

Selection Process

Two agencies will be selected to collaborate closely for the success of this initiative.

Hub Provider Selection

PCF will select a local nonprofit organization to lead and design Community Support Hubs.

Each Hub will provide, at minimum, trauma informed therapy, case management, and outreach.

Depending on additional needs of the neighborhood where the respective Hubs are located, the Lead Nonprofit will contract with other community nonprofits to provide additional services. All providers will be co-located.

The Lead Nonprofit should have experience, or have a proposed collaborative partner that has experience, providing mental health care to under-resourced communities, including communities of color and communities that have experienced trauma (including but not limited to violence and abuse, disasters, adverse childhood experiences, crime, interactions with the criminal/legal system, etc.). In additional to mental healthcare, Hubs are meant to provide two other core services: case management and outreach. Applicants may apply with up to two partners that would strengthen their proposal in these core areas. However, partnerships are not required. Please see the FAQs section for more information.

The Hubs will roll out one by one, with the first Hub opening this summer. The process is meant to evolve over time; the Lead Nonprofit will learn from the rollout of the first Hub before opening the second.

The locations and total number of Hubs is yet to be determined. Selecting locations for Hubs is a collaborative process. Factors for consideration include data, community identification of high need neighborhoods, and the Lead Nonprofit’s input. Nevertheless, PCF and the City of St. Petersburg reserve the right to prescribe Hub locations to the provider.

The Nonprofit Incubator (detailed below) and PCF will lead program evaluation of the Lead Nonprofit to demonstrate improvement in the lives of those served.

The anticipated allocation for the Lead Nonprofit is $5,136,200. In addition to providing Hub services, this amount includes funding to be used for emergency financial assistance, as well as  infrastructure or capital improvement needs if absolutely necessary.

There is no guarantee of a continuation of funding at the end of the ARPA spending period in 2026. The selected Lead Nonprofit will be expected to contribute to a sustainability plan.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply and potentially be selected as the Lead Nonprofit, an organization must:

• Be a 501(c)(3) public charity and have had such status for at least two years prior to the application launch date (3/24/23)
• Be able to apply under its own tax-exempt EIN
• Have a history OR have a proposed collaborative partner with a history of providing mental health services for at least two years prior to 3/24/23
• Demonstrate a readiness to implement the Hub concept
• Have experience providing care to a variety of demographics reflective of St. Petersburg’s population, including Black and Hispanic residents
• Be an expert in trauma-informed services and support
• Be embedded in the neighborhoods most in need of service, including South St. Petersburg
• Demonstrate the ability to manage vicarious trauma for providers of the Hub services
• Employ licensed mental health providers

Selection Criteria and Process

Organizations interested in serving as the Lead Nonprofit must complete a detailed application, which will then be reviewed by a committee of St. Pete residents and expert professionals. The committee meeting will be publicly live-streamed, and applicants will be able to attend the meeting. Applicants will also be able to answer questions posed by committee members. The Committee will make a recommendation for a Hub provider to be approved by PCF.

Organizations interested in serving as the Lead Nonprofit must demonstrate experience providing mental healthcare services to people in St. Petersburg, or have a collaborative partner that has this experience. Specifically, organizations will be evaluated on the depth of their connection to the St. Pete community, including experience providing care to underserved residents. This includes residents who belong to racial and ethnic minorities, low-income residents, and residents who speak English as a second language.

Finally, organizations must also demonstrate that they provide trauma-informed care. A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that care teams need to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective and healing health care services (Source: Center for Health Care Strategies).

Shared Services Organization Selection

PCF will also select, through a competitive solicitation process, an Administrative Support/Shared Services Organization (Nonprofit Incubator). The Nonprofit Incubator will establish a network of administrative vendors to provide local nonprofits with support services. These services may include, and are not limited to:

• Program design, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation
• Financial management including accounting and payroll
• Grant writing
• Communications and marketing
• Technology, including general IT and database creation
• Legal and other operational and administrative support
• Leadership training for staff and board, including professional development

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply and potentially be selected as the Nonprofit Incubator Provider, an organization must:

• Be able to apply under its own EIN
• Have a history of providing effective support to nonprofits in St. Petersburg
• Demonstrate a readiness to implement the Nonprofit Incubator concept
• Have experience providing support to nonprofits that serve a variety of demographics reflective of St. Petersburg’s population, including Black and Hispanic residents
• Have team members with experience evaluating a range of nonprofits, including those that receive state and federal grant money
• Have team members (or proposed team members) with experience successfully writing and administering state, federal, and foundation grants
• Have team members (or proposed team members) with experience consulting with nonprofits in areas of finances and management
• Have demonstrated a commitment to allocating resources according to need

Selection Criteria and Process

Organizations interested in serving as the Nonprofit Incubator Lead must complete a detailed application. Organizations with high-scoring applications will be invited to participate in a live interview conducted by a committee of St. Petersburg residents. The review committee will make a recommendation to PCF.

Organizations will be asked to provide a detailed proposal of how they believe a successful Nonprofit Incubator would operate. This includes: services that should be offered to non-profits, the method of offering those services, ideas for marketing the Nonprofit Incubator to small or lower-capacity nonprofits, operational budget, etc.

In addition, organizations should be able to demonstrate an excellent understanding of nonprofit needs in St. Petersburg. Experience providing consulting to nonprofits is strongly preferred. Organizations will be asked to show evidence of positive outcomes in their past work with nonprofits, and should also have demonstrated their experience working with federal funding and/or an understanding of federal Uniform Guidance.

There is a total of $2,500,000 available for the Nonprofit Incubator to be used throughout the entire funding period. The Nonprofit Incubator will be expected to create a sustainability plan for operations beyond 2026. There is no guarantee of a continuation of funding at the end of the ARPA spending period in 2026.

Timeline

March 24 – May 5, 2023

Hub Provider application period

May 2023

Hub Provider live interview and selection

May – July 2023

Hub planning: identification of subcontractors, first Hub location, etc.

End of Summer 2023

Launch of First Hub

The Nonprofit Incubator timeline will be posted shortly.

Funding Requirements

The Lead Nonprofit and Nonprofit Incubator will be considered subrecipients of federal funding, and as such will be bound by Uniform Guidance for Federal Awards. Since the awards will exceed the $750,000 threshold of federal funding, both the Lead Nonprofit and Nonprofit Incubator will be subject to Federal Single Audits. The cost of these audits may be billed to this grant, and should be included as part of your application’s budget.

PCF will provide technical assistance to help ensure the Lead Nonprofit and Nonprofit Incubator comply with Uniform Guidance, but the responsibility of compliance is ultimately the responsibility of each entity. Both entities will also be subject to intermittent subrecipient monitoring by PCF to ensure that funds are being used appropriately, as well as to ensure there are sufficient internal controls in managing funds. This subrecipient monitoring will include site visits and fiscal training.

The Lead Nonprofit, Nonprofit Incubator, City of St. Petersburg, and PCF will collaborate on an annual report to keep the public informed as to the progress of this initiative. This report will be disseminated on the PCF website as well as to City of St. Petersburg officials.

Technical Assistance

If you need help developing your application, you can request such assistance below.

This form should not be used for bugs or issues using the grant portal. Those questions can be directly emailed to Jocelyn Howard, ARPA Senior Program Officer.

By entering data into this form, you are NOT subscribing to any mailing lists. Any information submitted that is not related to technical assistance for the application will not receive a response. Furthermore, any information submitted through this form may be subject to public record.

FAQs