St. Petersburg ARPA – The Hubs and SSO

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.

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 award SLFRP2658 to the City of St. Petersburg as a direct recipient by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Current contracts related to this project can be found on the Accountability page.

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 Shared Services Organization, which will support small nonprofits with administrative and other needs.

1. One organization (“the Lead Agency”) 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 Shared Services Organization, which will provide administrative support, evaluation and research services, and other assistance as needed to help build the capacity the St. Petersburg 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 began in early 2023 and will last through the end of 2026.

Funding Requirements

The Lead Agency 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 Agency and Nonprofit Incubator will be subject to Federal Single Audits and/or additional monitoring as required by PCF. The cost of these audits and monitoring 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 Agency 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 Agency, 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.