Organization Description The In

Organization Description

The Institute for Contemporary Studies (ICS), founded in 1974, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research institute. The Bay Area Inner City Leadership Alliance (BAICLA), an independent subsidiary of the Institute for Contemporary Studies, Inc., will conduct the CCF project. BAICLA was founded in 2001 as a leadership and program development organization. A user-cooperative of small faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs), it was designed to help these organizations compete for grants and provide higher levels of service. BAICLA is a self-governing intermediary organization.

Project Description

Through the CCF project, the Bay Area Inner City Leadership Alliance will build the leadership and program capacities of small FBCOs in four San Francisco/Bay Area low-income communities by delivering technical assistance through an expanding, linked system of hubs and satellites. Hub organizations are FBCOs that provide specified courses and technical assistance, maintain a minimum of two Certified Marriage Educators, and hold monthly planning meetings with satellites. Satellite organizations are FBCOs that have been selected through the sub-grant competition and have specified capacities.

Geographic Scope of Project

Oakland, Alameda County, San Francisco, and San Francisco County and Contra Costa County.

Partnering Organizations

BAICLA is a partnering organization with an expanding membership base. We will partner with the G.R.E.E.N. (Gather Resources to Educate and Empower) Foundation to provide the capacity building training. In our first year we will add Lighthouse Ministries and New Hope Recovery as key partners as well as becoming a founding member of the California Healthy Marriage Coalition.

Sub-Awards

A total of $91,545 will be awarded in sub-grants to FBCOs that are most committed to becoming satellite organizations for the four BAICLA programs focusing on marriage and family strengthening ($71,000 in sub-awards), and four additional programs focusing on mentoring ex-offenders and their families ($20,545 in sub-awards). The goal at the end of the three year period of the grant is to have ten satellite FBCO networks operating at each of their hubs.

Project Objectives

1.	Demonstrate in three San Francisco-Bay Area low-income communities that a user cooperative of small FBCOs operating through a hub-and-satellite organizational structure can build capacity and sustain enhanced service delivery.
2.	Increase awareness and provide technical assistance to other communities in California interested in building area-wide user cooperatives to build their capacity.

Project Strategies

•	Deliver capacity-building and technical assistance through an expanding, linked system of hubs and satellites. In year one, BAICLA will work with their own hubs, building their capacity by adding satellites through competitive grants in Oakland and San Francisco;
•	Target four issues that are key to ensuring the effectiveness of inner-city organizations: providing leadership that has a clear strategy and vision; building organizational capacities of fiscal and administrative management; educating members on their mission; and developing an action strategy for realizing goals and building and sustaining collaboration and evaluation;
•	Focus on three critical service issues: strengthening marriages and families, mentoring ex-offenders, and mentoring children and families of ex-offenders.

Complete list of CCF 2006 Sub-awardee organizations

PROJECT DIRECTOR
Dr. Robert Hawkins, Jr.
President and CEO

PROJECT MANAGER
Perenna Fleming
Chief Operating Officer
Perenna@icspress.com

Contact Information:
Institute for Contemporary Studies
3100 Harrison Street
Oakland, CA 94611
510-238-5010
www.icspress.com