Justice Reform funds will be used to support long-term, proactive services that meet the needs of Providence residents. Projects include expanding an existing co-response model and the implementation of a larger scale behavioral health crisis response program, a license restoration clinic, and a legal defense fund for residents.

With these funds, The Providence Center is able to continue to provide  behavioral health clinicians and support police co-response models. The program provides technology to assist with access and administer services. In addition, it expands Crisis Response Infrastructure through data systems and provides training for all parties involved in crisis response.

The first ordinance allocated funds to the programs below, and the second ordinance added $2M to the overall budget for these programs.  

• Youth Mentorship Program – $1.1M
  Mentor Rhode Island is working with 17 local organizations to provide mentoring opportunities to youth across the city as part of the City’s anti-violence work. Community members, stakeholders and non-profit organizations have recognized access to mentorship as a proven method of deterring youth violence. 
• Citywide Non-Violence Training – $500K
  The Nonviolence Institute is implementing a citywide, paid non-violence training for youth ages 15-24, with the goal of enhancing participants’ conflict resolution skills and proactively identifying interpersonal conflicts between individuals and groups at risk of escalating to violence. Through this partnership, the Nonviolence Institute is holding two types of training, one targeted at youth and another open to adults. 
• Year-Round Youth Jobs – $1M
  Providence allocated funding to the City’s One Providence for Youth jobs program. The funding supports the addition of over 450 year-round youth jobs to the program, which offer students opportunities that complement their school-year academic and after-school activities by building work readiness skills and exposing them to new career fields. In this program, all youth are earning a wage of $15 per hour.

These funds support over 200 summer jobs for Providence youth between the ages of 14-24, all with an earning wage of $15 per hour. These jobs are provided through various community organizations throughout the city.

Providence is providing expanded summer day camp programs in 2022, supported by Rescue Plan funding. This funding will be used for staffing, equipment and general operating costs associated with the camp facilitation.

During the summer of 2021, the Providence Recreation Department ran a new summer basketball program that hosted over two hundred youth over the course of a five-week program at the West End and Vincent Brown Recreation Centers. Recreation Hours Expansion funds also allowed for extended hours at the centers for young adults during the summer of 2021, with five recreation centers open from 9-11PM on weekdays.

Grants to community and recreation centers will help centers continue to serve the Providence community at large. Not only are community and recreation centers accessible for Providence youth as safe spaces to enjoy after-school time, but they also serve as warming centers, emergency food stations and WiFi hubs for all Providence residents.

Providence recreation centers are critical safe spaces for Providence youth. The capital investment plan will go beyond warm, secure and dry. There will be a heavy emphasis on “like new” environments with the community in mind. Standard improvements will include improvements to common areas, restrooms, computer rooms, learning spaces, offices, and more Each project will enhance learning and play spaces, boost community engagement and positively influence youth.

Providence Talks is a language enrichment program that brings parents, children and educators together to enhance language development and learning during the critical years of age 0-3. Providence Talks uses a Language Environment Analysis (LENA) language pedometer to tabulate words spoken with children, aiming for a critical threshold of 21,000 daily words.

The early learning infrastructure program provides specialized assessment, technical assistance and facility grants to local childcare and early learning providers. Grants support organizations in developing comprehensive indoor and outdoor facility plans; making renovations to address issues related to licensing compliance, health and safety or physical space barriers to quality improvement; and expanding quality programming throughout the city.

These funds are being used to expand hours and programming at PCL’s three largest branches: Knight Memorial, Mt. Pleasant and Rochambeau. In addition, funds will be used to install air conditioners at Knight Memorial so that the building can be used throughout the summer months and can serve as a cooling center during periods of extreme weather. Funds will also be used to create a fully bilingual (English and Spanish) version of the PCL website. Funding may also be used to improve the libraries’ air filtration systems and expand hours at smaller library branches.

These funds will help facilitate Providence Public Library’s expanded open hours through support for two new part-time Information Services staff. Funds will support a new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) Specialist who will coordinate programming as part of the PVD Young Makers program and assist the public in using the technology in the new Education Workshop and Makerspace.

These funds will be used to develop a long-term Providence Emergency Food Security Response Plan that identifies successes and weaknesses in the 2020 COVID response system. This program will assess current infrastructure needs and establish a Food Security Network that can be activated in the event of a future emergency within the City of Providence.

This fund will provide grants to local community organizations to strengthen local food infrastructure.

This funding will increase RIPTA access for low-income individuals through free bus passes, increase availability of safe shelter for seniors and provide virtual access to services such as telehealth and senior center activities. In addition, this program will address food and health disparity concerns within the elderly community, provide financial assistance for home improvement projects to low-income residents and increase the availability of virtual health education.

This funding will encourage main street beautification projects and redevelopment of  the neighborhoods and commercial corridors most impacted by COVID-19 by enhancing their visual aesthetics, with the goal of increasing property values, tenant occupancy, economic development and job creation.

These funds provide direct relief funding for non-profit organizations to extend social services such as minority business assistance, behavioral health services, healthcare, job training, food pantries and childcare to residents within neighborhoods most disrupted by COVID-19.

The funds provide grants to neighborhood associations and nonprofit organizations to improve vacant or neglected properties and put them to use for small businesses, community gardens, farms, recreation areas or pop-up shops. This effort is accomplished through the direct support of neighborhood-based cooperatives, community development corporations and land trusts.

These funds will provide non-credentialed training and career development opportunities for Providence residents with the greatest barriers to employment.

Small business grants of $2,500 were awarded to over 250 Small Businesses in Providence through the City’s COVID-19 Small Business Grant Program, starting in 2021 with the application period for the program ending on July 1, 2022. Remaining funds will be allocated for small business corridors or capital infrastructure improvements in Providence neighborhoods.