QUESTION
Council Member Williams Asks DYCD About NDA Program Operation and NAB Involvement
1:13:15
·
3 min
Council Member Nantasha Williams inquires about the operation of Neighborhood Development Areas (NDAs) and the involvement of Neighborhood Advisory Boards (NABs) in the program process. Deputy Commissioner Mike Bobbitt clarifies the distinction between NABs and NDAs, detailing the roles of NAB volunteers in community canvassing, public hearings, and consultation on funding and provider selection. The discussion also covers the selection of service providers for specific NDAs, with details on providers for safety and crime prevention initiatives in various communities.
Speaker 8
1:13:15
And so the people who are a part of the program that are running the actual, like, NDA program, were they mad members, or were they were the other members of the people that were recruited?
Speaker 3
1:13:27
Council member, I wanna draw a distinction And I recognize sometimes, do you see another CD agency who get caught up in a lot of acronyms?
1:13:36
Right?
1:13:37
So The NABs are neighborhood advisory board members.
1:13:42
And then we draw a boundary for each neighborhood that we're focusing on, and we call those NDAs.
1:13:50
That's the neighborhood development area.
1:13:53
The NABs As I shared earlier in my testimony, those are volunteers that are working cooperated with NYPD to canvass the community.
1:14:01
To hold the public hearings, to determine the highest priority needs.
1:14:05
And then once we have that information, we again meet with the NAB members at particular points in time to say, okay, based on the money that's available and based on the highest priority needs you've identified, you can fund these 3 or 4 program areas, and then they will decide We wanna throw as much money as we can to these 3 or one of these 4.
1:14:28
Right?
1:14:29
And then again, when we are procuring, they will join us in reading their proposal Like, you found that this was the need.
1:14:35
This is where we're gonna fund.
1:14:37
These are the people who wanna deliver the services, and they're helping us rate and score proposals so that we find the best provider that's going to deliver that service in that community.
1:14:47
So with regard to the program that is as a commissioner and I were just talking about safety and and crime for those 3 neighborhoods where this is one of the highest priority needs.
1:14:58
We identify a provider that's going to work.
1:15:01
In those neighborhoods.
1:15:02
And part of their program design is they have to enlist the community.
1:15:06
They cannot even attempt to try to solve the problem by themselves because the community problem.
1:15:13
They might invite any B members just like any other residents of the community to be part of solving problem, but not every program necessarily would would do that.
1:15:22
This one might because it's about raising the community awareness.
1:15:26
You would pick up, you're saying about a mural.
1:15:27
Mhmm.
1:15:28
So then once it was identified that they're gonna work on a mural, then who's gonna do the mural and everyone kind of pitching in and working together
Speaker 9
1:15:34
on that?
Speaker 8
1:15:34
So do you have a provider facilitating or coordinating the NDA project in each community, or do you only bring on a provider once a project is identified?
Speaker 3
1:15:45
We identify the provider first.
1:15:48
And then in the case of this program, the provider has to, as part of their service strategy, host whatever meetings need to happen and broke whatever alliances need to happen to have the community identify and then work toward designing whatever the solution is going to be.
Speaker 8
1:16:05
And the providers are selected by the same, like, procurement process.
Speaker 3
1:16:09
Same procurement process.
Speaker 1
1:16:10
Okay.
Speaker 3
1:16:10
Yes.
Speaker 8
1:16:10
What are the providers for the deeper then?
Speaker 3
1:16:12
You remember offhand?
1:16:13
Yep.
Speaker 7
1:16:14
So in the Bronx, we have Mashilo Montessori MMCC Community Center, Mashilo, Yeah.
1:16:22
And then we have 4 Farrakaway.
1:16:24
We have wags or wheelchairs against guns.
1:16:27
And then in Queensbridge, we have Jacob Rees.
Speaker 8
1:16:34
Okay.
1:16:34
I have more questions, buddy.
1:16:38
No.