2016 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 4 - Management of State Agencies
Chapter 50 - Office of Policy and Management: General Provisions; Budget and Appropriations; State Planning
Section 4-68cc - Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program.

(a) As used in this section, “Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program” or “program” means the pilot program established pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, and “Neighborhood Security Fellows” or “Fellows” means individuals who have been identified and recruited for participation in the Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program pursuant to said subsection.

(b) (1) The Office of Policy and Management shall establish a pilot program to foster neighborhood safety in urban environments and to serve as a blueprint to reduce neighborhood gun violence state-wide. The Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management shall select a municipality that has a population of at least one hundred twenty-four thousand and less than one hundred twenty-five thousand to participate in the Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program.

(2) The chief elected official of the municipality selected by the secretary shall select a nonprofit entity to administer the program, which shall be funded by local, state, federal and private moneys. Such moneys shall be used for the administration and costs of the program, including, but not limited to, salaries, benefits and other compensation for any individuals hired by such nonprofit entity to administer the program and stipends to be paid to Fellows.

(3) The Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program shall engage in, but not be limited to, the following activities and initiatives:

(A) The identification and recruitment into the program of individuals between eighteen and twenty-four years of age who are most likely to be perpetrators or victims of gun violence. Such identification and recruitment shall be accomplished after the execution of all appropriate or necessary waivers, authorizations and releases with the assistance of (i) the local or state police department serving the municipality selected, (ii) the local board of education serving the municipality selected, (iii) the state's attorney serving the judicial district of the municipality selected, (iv) the Court Support Services of the Judicial Branch, and (v) any other state agencies and departments and organizations capable of providing such assistance; and

(B) The coordination of programs, services and activities in which Fellows will participate, including, but not limited to, (i) anger management, (ii) life skills training, (iii) dispute and conflict resolution, (iv) remedial education, (v) leadership development, (vi) character building, (vii) mentoring programs, and (viii) preemployment skills workshops, including career counseling, work-readiness, team building, customer service and entrepreneurial training.

(4) The Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program may engage in (A) the coordination and placement of Fellows in worksite assignments, including (i) local, state and federal government agencies and departments, (ii) state-funded public construction projects within the municipality selected, (iii) private businesses, particularly those receiving assistance from the Small Business Express program established pursuant to section 32-7g or the Subsidized Training and Employment program established pursuant to section 31-3pp, and (iv) nonprofit community-based organizations receiving a grant-in-aid from the state, and (B) the coordination of training placements, including in adult education courses, vocational training programs, higher education courses and apprenticeship programs.

(c) (1) The chief elected official of the municipality selected under subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section, in conjunction with the Capital Region Development Authority established pursuant to section 32-601, shall select public construction projects located in the federally designated Promise Zones as Neighborhood Security projects. A state or municipal contract for a Neighborhood Security project shall be awarded only to a bidder that agrees to hire a nonprofit subcontractor that employs Fellows who will be assigned to work at such Neighborhood Security project worksite. The chief elected official of the municipality selected shall (A) determine, in conjunction with the Capital Region Development Authority, any minimum number of Fellows such nonprofit subcontractor shall be required to employ to be eligible to be hired for a Neighborhood Security project, and (B) encourage the hiring of any such nonprofit subcontractor for any other municipal or state-funded public construction project.

(2) Before awarding a contract for a Neighborhood Security project, the state or the municipality shall state in its notice of solicitation for competitive bids or request for proposals or qualifications for such contract that the bidder is required to comply with the provisions of section 4a-60g, the requirements concerning nondiscrimination and affirmative action under sections 4a-60 and 4a-60a and the provisions under subdivision (1) of this subsection regarding the hiring of a subcontractor. The state or the municipality may inquire whether a bidder is a business enterprise that participates in the Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program and may award preference points to such bidder.

(d) Not later than January 1, 2018, and annually thereafter, if the municipality selected under subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section received state funding for the Neighborhood Security Fellowship Program during the previous calendar year, such municipality and the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management shall jointly submit a report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committees of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to the judiciary and appropriations and the budgets of state agencies. Such report shall detail (1) the number of individuals participating in the program during the previous calendar year, (2) any changes in the level of gun-related incidents of violence in the municipality, (3) an evaluation of the programs, services and activities undertaken under subdivision (3) of subsection (b) of this section, (4) the costs of the program during the previous calendar year in both state and private dollars, and (5) any recommendations to expand the program to other municipalities.

(May Sp. Sess. P.A. 16-4, S. 260.)

History: May Sp. Sess. P.A. 16-4 effective July 1, 2016.