10:04:41 Oh, I don't know. I guess I'll record it.
10:04:46 Good morning, everybody. I'm Jesse Schmidt.
10:04:49 I'm the director of Orange County Restorative Justice, and we are the fiscal agent for the Federal award that we received.
10:05:00 Grant, number 15, Pbj. A. 22 Gg. O.
10:05:06 1, 2, 0 5, b, r, n, d. From the Bureau of Justice.
10:05:11 Assistance, and we are here to answer questions about the release, for, sorry the request for proposals for our initiative.
10:05:27 Statewide initiative for equity through data, justice, inclusion, and education.
10:05:33 And I'm going to. I'm a member of the leadership team here for our statewide project, and I'm gonna allow the other members of the leadership team to introduce themselves.
10:05:46 Rachel kick us off!
10:05:48 Okay. Hi, everyone. Rachel, jolly. She her pronouns, and the director of the Burlington Community Justice Center, and a member of this leadership team.
10:05:56 I'll hand it off to Alexis.
10:06:04 Alexis, did you catch that? Do you wanna introduce yourself? There you go!
10:06:07 It did. It was wondering like me.
10:06:10 They, Alexis, Pryanneka, Community Social justice, part of the leadership team at.
10:06:18 And Amara.
10:06:20 Good morning, everyone, hopefully. This is coming through Amara Vasquez on the Ed for the community, Restorative Justice Center in St.
10:06:31 Johnsburury, and I'm a member of the leadership team.
10:06:36 Kendra. You wanna go next.
10:06:41 Yes, good morning. My name is Kendra. Malone pronouns they them, and I am a diversity, equity, inclusion, consultant.
10:06:53 Alright, and then I'm Abby Whipple and I use she her pronouns.
10:06:58 I am the founder of the Vela by restorative justice data systems.
10:07:06 But we just go by Vela, because that's a mouthful.
10:07:09 I'm a founder of that nonprofit which has seed funding from the National Center on Restorative Justice to coordinate and support the implementation of data systems for restorative justice programs across the country, and I've also worked in restorative justice for a little over
10:07:26 10 years, and I still do some training and consultation, and then facilitation of high impact cases.
10:07:33 And that's me.
10:07:37 Alright. Thank you, everybody I'm gonna do a quick screen share.
10:07:41 Just to make sure you guys and anybody who might be watching this video knows where to find information.
10:07:53 And.
10:07:57 Unfortunately.
10:08:01 My website, is my page is not oh, there it is. Okay.
10:08:06 Here we go!
10:08:10 So you can find information. And any updates to their request for proposal request for proposals on this web page, and we will be posting the video here and also any updates.
10:08:29 I will draw your attention to the initial update that we put here, which is that there was an error in the initial release, which is, these are one year contracts.
10:08:45 Initially, it had said, may first, 2023 to June thirtieth, 2023.
10:08:51 That was meant to be. June thirtieth, 2024.
10:08:55 So you can find that information here, and also the Initiatives Mission, which is focused on these 3 outcomes and the Orient.
10:09:07 The 3 requests for proposals that we out for consideration.
10:09:17 And.
10:09:23 Alright! So we're gonna start off with the questions that we received by email.
10:09:32 The first question was, What are the terms of extending contracts beyond one year?
10:09:39 We have the option to extend our Federal funding for an additional 9 months, and so, if you need I feel like you'll need more time to execute your proposal.
10:09:56 We'd like you to include that in your work plan.
10:10:00 With the understanding that there would not be additional funding.
10:10:05 You know you should put your best and final offer into the proposal.
10:10:11 We can extend time, but we won't be able to add additional funding for that time.
10:10:16 I hope that makes sense to everybody, anything to add leadership, team.
10:10:22 Okay. The second question was specific to the data and evaluation project, and specifically, if we were going to, this included all 8 programs that were included in a panel, one.
10:10:40 And yes, it does. So a lot of the programs you'll find there's a lot of overlap in how the programs are executed using restorative principles and often a lot of overlap.
10:10:52 And the people that were serving as well. And within each one of those programs there are slightly different data collection requirements and reporting of outcomes that have to be considered. So that's why we delineated those individually.
10:11:10 Anything to add folks about that? Alright. The third question is, are there any reports published or currently available?
10:11:24 We would encourage you to reach out to the State funders at directly.
10:11:31 If you want to see what Uhs are publicly available, that's gonna be probably the most efficient and fair way for people to access information about the data that's collected and how it's presented to the public right now.
10:11:50 And maybe we should. We can provide the 3 contact names for the 3 primary funders just and then maybe on the website.
10:12:00 Also, we could list their and information. Just don't have.
10:12:03 Their contact information at the ready. But the names of the 3 would be Willa Farrell at the Eternal's office, the Vermont Attorney General's office.
10:12:13 Who's the director of the court diversity and community justice unit.
10:12:17 I think that's what it's called. And then Derek, mia devnik, I think it's M.
10:12:25 I o d, I, j at v n I K. But I'm not 100% sure on that.
10:12:31 And he is the Grant manager or the director of the community, and Restorative Justice Unit.
10:12:36 At the Vermont Department of Corrections, and Lindy Boudreau the director of Juvenile Justice at the Vermont Department for Children and Families I'm assuming that you can find those in like that information even when not being able to spell derrick's last name well, if
10:12:51 you, Googled, but we can figure out if that contact info is should be posted.
10:12:58 And I'll add that Jean Nelson is the primary contact for the victims of crime.
10:13:05 Grants that are provided to restorative justice centers in the State.
10:13:12 Out of the room on center for kind of victim services.
10:13:14 Thank you. Yeah. And that information was posted at the or links to the primary websites for those programs is fantasy.
10:13:25 And also in the Rfp, yeah, and what prompted a de, I specific.
10:13:35 Rfp. Rachel, do you wanna?
10:13:37 Yeah, in terms of context again, these, the 23 agencies that this grant is covering or including, are these 3 Rfps are including, our have their own histories as in terms of longevity.
10:13:54 Some of them have been around for decades. Some of are younger than you know, like 5 or 6 years each have their own history, but generally I think it's safe to say that, given our the community justice bent of all of us, and the the inherent ties with the criminal legal system, that does involve
10:14:13 disparities, racial and and others other kinds. Many of the agencies have been involved in this work for some time.
10:14:20 However, I will say that George Floyd's murder and 2020 combined with a pandemic, put an extra focus, a spotlight on want these disparities into the criminal legal systems, and, like compliciteness with it, and had the Cjcs and others that the these agencies
10:14:40 aren't all called community justice centers. But these 23 agencies who are involved in community justice called to do more that we have, and that in a more unified way.
10:14:52 And so I would say at that in that first year 2,020, the Vermont Associated Court, Vermont Association of Court Diversion and Pre Trial Programs.
10:15:01 Backdap is the acronym did draft some commitments that we wanted to hold ourselves accountable to around racial justice, and opened it up to all the other organizations to join us in signing those commitments, and so since that time we've been looking for more
10:15:19 leadership truly and more action on living up to those commitments and actually going beyond them.
10:15:26 And so I feel like that's the context for the centers of why we applied for this Congressional earmark that resulted in this award from the Bureau of Justice.
10:15:38 And then, out of which came these 3 r. Of piece.
10:15:42 But Alexis soar, and Jesse should all feel free to add to that.
10:15:49 And I'll add that in in addition, we know through the data that has been collected in Vermont, that our justice system reflects what we see nationwide, which is disparities in incarceration, disparities and policing the people who are being pulled over are over overrepresent people
10:16:12 of color in our state. And so we acknowledge that we are facing the same. And so we acknowledge that we are facing this similar systemic racism within our systems that need to be addressed.
10:16:27 And I think in knowing that we want, you know, circling back to restorative justice. You know the intention behind this is that we feel compelled to look at our own systems for similar systemic injustices that might exist within our restorative justice practices.
10:16:55 Omara, did you want to add anything to that? Or Alexis?
10:17:05 Okay.
10:17:05 Having production issue. So go ahead.
10:17:09 Okay. Yeah, it's hard when there are storms in Vermont, the Internet goes.
10:17:17 So we will we all open the floor to questions.
10:17:23 And, Abby, I see you raised your hands. If you wanna.
10:17:29 Thanks. I was in a meeting yesterday, and folks are using that.
10:17:33 And I was like, oh, how clever! I forgot about that function!
10:17:36 Yeah, I have. I have 2 questions. The first one is, are you all able to share these commitments?
10:17:45 That that it sounds like the Cdc's. And then, later, the 23 agencies all agreed to around de I.
10:17:56 Yes, and I will make sure that that specifically gets posted to the the website.
10:18:08 They're on the court diversion website as well as some of our.
10:18:11 Some of the individual agencies, as well but the core diversion website probably is the easiest one to find them on.
10:18:17 But we could also post.
10:18:22 Then my second question is, is it possible to access the data?
10:18:31 That's showing disparities in policing, and if not, is it?
10:18:39 Can you direct me to specifically which contact would be?
10:18:42 Able to share that information, or, if it's public at all.
10:18:50 I believe, was that spearheaded by the Crime Research Group, that data collection.
10:18:57 Yes, and others. I feel like there's kind of like a lot of data that shows that those disparities so different municipalities as well as statewide.
10:19:09 But the Crime Research Group might be the easiest single point of focus.
10:19:16 Okay. And it's the Crime Research group connected to any of those 4 contact people. No separate.
10:19:24 Okay.
10:19:31 Kendra. You said you had it a question as well.
10:19:34 I did so. I am an independent contractor, so I'm not a part of an nonprofit or a business, and I notice that Sam requires to receive your entity registration that you either a business or an organization.
10:19:53 Does that, therefore, make me announceigible to apply for this opportunity with you all?
10:20:00 I don't know the parameters for registering with Sam.
10:20:07 Yeah, I've tried several times, and you have to have some kind of legal business or nonprofit title to be able to register in Sam.
10:20:20 Yeah, I know you have to have some kind of Sam. Id.
10:20:33 Hmm!
10:20:27 And but I will just to get absolute clarity on that reach out to our Grants manager and ask about.
10:20:40 Just see if I can get any additional clarity on independent contractors, and and that's system.
10:20:47 So sorry. I don't know that specifically, but.
10:20:49 Well, thank you. I appreciate you looking into that. And I you know, did my best to do due diligence to kind of extend. What options are there?
10:20:58 And so I would just, you know, Highlight, that as we're talking about disparities, you know the requirement that someone have either a business or a proper 5.
10:21:07 Oh, one c. 3 or other type of entity makes it challenging for a lot of independent contractors particularly, you know, people of color, queer folks to be able to contribute to these opportunities.
10:21:20 So if I do pursue, and it looks like I'll have to start an Llc.
10:21:27 Okay.
10:21:25 In a very short timeframe. So yeah, please, I would appreciate any clarity you could provide. Jesse.
10:21:31 Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
10:21:32 Okay, yeah, thanks for raising awareness. I didn't realize that was a requirement of Sam registration, either.
10:21:43 So, okay.
10:21:40 Yes, I believe that it is. Yeah.
10:21:45 Yeah, I will. I'll follow up with a Sam question.
10:21:54 At? At what stage does the Sam like registration and good standing need to be when proposals are submitted?
10:22:06 Right now I'm in this, I guess, like holding period where I had to submit documents, and I don't know the timeline for when I'm gonna hear back so anyways, it's it's underway.
10:22:22 But I haven't been issued in a number for the nonprofit, so like does that all need to be cleared up by March fourteenth.
10:22:30 Or will there be a little bit of time afterward?
10:22:33 Yeah. So I would say to indicate in your proposal at what phase you are in the Sam registration process.
10:22:43 We won't be able to sign a contract with you until your Sam status is like a okay with the Federal Government.
10:22:54 But I also had to update my Sam, and I understand how incredibly cumbersome it is.
10:23:03 So we'll give as much leeway as we can if your proposals accepted to give you time to get through the Sam registration system.
10:23:26 I do have a another question. So what kind of technical assistance do you anticipate being able to provide either from, you know, the leadership team?
10:23:36 That's kind of overseeing these initiatives, or, you know, from a kind of other entities to folks who are providing these services to you all.
10:23:47 Can you be more specific about what you mean about technical assistance?
10:23:52 So, you know. Is there room, you know, within the leadership team to support, you know, contractors in, you know, making introductions, or, you know, meeting on, you know, basis determined to be most beneficial for you know, getting to know the different organizations, you know, is there an expectation that the leadership team
10:24:17 or other folks connect to this work in Vermont will provide.
10:24:21 You know what I would consider, you know fairly intensive, you know.
10:24:25 Ability to to support the entities doing this work either through meetings or questions, or, you know, like you gave us references to the folks to contact. To get your different types of data sets like is that something that the leadership team expects will be a part of their work.
10:24:44 Rachel, are you nodding your head? Do you wanna take that?
10:24:52 Sure!
10:24:47 Yeah, myself, is that we would I would be beneficial to hear on the proposal of what kinds of things but the kinds of examples you gave absolutely I feel like it's the leadership leadership teams role to facilitate the the efficacy of our of our contractors and do whatever we
10:25:04 can, to connect dots, to bridge to, you know, coordinate levels.
10:25:09 It's mostly the lift that we knew that we didn't have the capacity to do of.
10:25:14 Actually, you know as well as the expertise, of course, but obviously I I'm not.
10:25:20 Obviously the leadership team is here to help the contractors be effective.
10:25:23 So the kinds of examples you mentioned I would see absolutely within the role of our team.
10:25:30 Great. Thank you.
10:25:33 I'll also add that our hope is as these projects get it underway, that we actually will be forming committees with other justice center leaders.
10:25:45 To specifically focus on this these projects and to give more concentrated feback and as well.
10:25:54 So we're trying to build and inclusive and transparent process with all of the justice agencies to get this work done.
10:26:05 And we wanna again provide our contractors with as much support as they need to be effective in implementing the project.
10:26:22 I I do have another question along those lines, especially because I'm coming from the data and evaluation angle for any of these.
10:26:33 And this is an I don't know. I feel free to decline to answer this question, but our.
10:26:41 Is there any resistance among the 23 agencies, and for any of them will this feel sort of like a top-down mandatory project that they have to participate in, or people?
10:26:54 Because you all sign those commitments feeling on board and incentivized.
10:26:59 Or are they incentivized intrinsically?
10:27:07 I. These are 23 independent organizations.
10:27:14 I think within that there is some diversity around interest as well as capacity to engage in this work, and I will also say that we did have a statewide launch for this initiative in the fall, and we had nearly a 100% participation.
10:27:35 And the folks who couldn't come. Rsvp'd with regrets that they couldn't be there to participate.
10:27:39 So I think there is overwhelming support. And and again it, you know, depending on different factors capacity, I think, is that gonna be the biggest barrier to how much people can be involved.
10:27:56 And we did craft our great language to with an understanding that not everybody may be able to or want to be involved in every aspect of this proposal.
10:28:08 It's not a mandate for agencies, but we are hoping that we're going to provide things that are useful to folks, and they're going to want to take advantage of that.
10:28:25 Yeah, I would only add that with the 3 funders are also in strong support, and have come up.
10:28:32 Come along with us as and the 3 groups you know, these 3 funders have various meetings that include each of these organizations that are funded by them some of them overlap all 3, some to someone but updates about this initiative have been given in those kinds of meetings all along the
10:28:50 way for all these months. So I would underscore what Jesse said, that there's definitely support.
10:28:55 I wouldn't say there's any resistance, but in terms like I wouldn't count the capacity thing as resistance.
10:29:01 It would. It would be kind of what people felt like, the ability to how many meetings can I go to?
10:29:07 But I do feel like there's definitely overwhelming support support for all you know, the 3 and the overall initiative and the 3 Rfp.
10:29:16 Ideas and concepts.
10:29:22 Thank you. I'm gonna ask a follow-up question based on a conversation that I had with another state, which is, do you all see any benefit or reason to?
10:29:40 Share the funding back with some of the programs to compensate their participation.
10:29:48 With a nod to these projects, potentially stretching their capacity.
10:29:53 And I'll just say say that I was explicitly asked by another State to do what I'm what I'm saying is essentially receive money, and then compensate programs that chose to participate.
10:30:07 So is that an expectation at all with this project?
10:30:14 We do have some funding that aside within this grant to offer compensation to organizations that participate in terms of time and mileage, and.
10:30:37 I think if you want to build that into your proposal, I'd encourage you to do that, and that might go into the consideration of how we are able to expend the funds that we have set aside to support that if that makes sense.
10:30:59 And I appreciate. I'll just say that I I think that's an important consideration.
10:31:06 If your proposal expects a lot of time, or is gonna demand a lot of time from organizations to provide you information, or you know, interviews, or whatever that you know, I would consider that a an appropriate consideration in your proposal to
10:31:28 outline that and and take that into consideration around how we might need to be compensated.
10:31:54 Unless we get on another topic. I just wanna be transparent that I'm not.
10:32:00 No other questions are coming to the surface for me. So I'm gonna pass it over to you, Kendra, to see it.
10:32:03 What's percolating for you?
10:32:07 Thanks, Abby, and I appreciate your follow-up questions, cause I had some similar ones, so great minds.
10:32:16 So after this call Jesse should we have a further questions?
10:32:20 Are you? The contact reach out to?
10:32:22 Unfortunately, after this call, we can't take any further questions regarding the proposal.
10:32:25 Oh, okay. Okay.
10:32:30 Okay.
10:32:38 Great.
10:32:28 This is the deadline for questions, so we will post the file up, you know some of the links and documents that have been requested, and the recording here.
10:32:44 Great. Thank you for that clarification.
10:32:46 So, and if you have any additional questions that you just wanna rattle off, we can always post them to the website.
10:32:54 Yeah.
10:32:55 Thank you.
10:33:00 Alright!
10:33:04 Said, everything. Anything you, Rachel or Mara or Alexis, you guys wanna add?
10:33:12 Okay.
10:33:14 Thanks, everybody for your time.
10:33:15 Thank you, everybody for coming. We appreciate it, and and yeah, please go to the website.
10:33:23 For additional updates follow up from this conversation.
10:33:28 Yeah, and I just wanna, I guess change hats really quick.
10:33:32 If it's okay and say from a practitioner perspective, and then Rj supporter perspective, thanks for doing this.
10:33:40 And this is really coming from a different side of my role in participation.
10:33:46 And hopefully the Rj movement. But yeah, I would like to see this be a model for other States.
10:33:53 It's just it's exciting that you all sought funding specifically on these terms, because it's a big question and issue coming up for restorative justice all around the country.
10:34:03 So I'm really excited. I'm hoping that there's gonna be a lot of conference presentations on the work that you're able to do in the next couple years.
10:34:10 So, yeah.
10:34:13 Thank you. We're really excited to have this opportunity.
10:34:17 So appreciate it. Alright!
10:34:21 Thanks, all.