An Assessment of Services Provided Under the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Grants Program

An Assessment of Services Provided Under the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Grants Program Final Report June 2006 Prepared for: American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program Prepared by: The Urban Institute 2100 M Street, NW ● Washington, DC 20037 An Assessment of Services Provided Under the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Grants Program Final Report June 2006 Prepared by Elaine Morley Carol J. De Vita Nancy Pindus With Jennifer Auer The Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center and Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy 2100 M Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 Submitted to American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program 7 Hanover Square New York, NY 10004 Contract No. 238554 UI No. 07823-000-00 The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report benefited from the assistance and collaboration of many people. We especially wish to thank the Recovery Grants Program directors and their staffs who participated in our survey, and particularly those who met with us on the site visits included in this study. Their thoughtful responses and insights made this report possible. The staff of the September 11th Recovery Program, particularly James Davenport and Michael Zeiss, shared with us the history and background of the program and facilitated our access to grantees. The authors also are grateful to many Urban Institute colleagues for their assistance, including Harry Hatry, for advice and guidance throughout the study; Shawnise Thompson, for overseeing and conducting grantee interviews; and Jennifer Auer, Elizabeth Cove, Julie Fenderson and Barika Williams for their diligence conducting grantee interviews. We thank Christopher Hayes for his assistance with the survey database; Kerstin Gentsch and June Ross for coding, cleaning, and running data; and Tim Ware for helping to prepare the manuscript. We appreciate Rosa Castaneda’s assistance in conducting a Spanish-language client focus group and site visit, and the help of the Asian American Federation of New York and Irene Chung in conducting a focus group with Chinese-speaking clients. We also thank Mary McIntosh of Princeton Survey Research Associates International for her advice and assistance throughout the project. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Urban Institute, its board, or its sponsors. An Assessment of Services Provided Under the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Grants Program TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................I Profile of Grantees and Their Clients ................................................................................... ii Implementation Experiences ............................................................................................... iii Client Satisfaction................................................................................................................. v Ongoing Need for Services .................................................................................................. v Lessons Learned.................................................................................................................vi Conclusions and Recommendations.................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 I. OVERVIEW OF THE RECOVERY GRANTS PROGRAM ........................................................ 2 RGP Client Categories ......................................................................................................... 5 II. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 6 Analysis Plan........................................................................................................................ 7 III. OVERVIEW OF RECOVERY GRANTS PROGRAMS ............................................................ 8 Clients Served .................................................................................................................... 10 Services Provided by Grantees.......................................................................................... 12 IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOVERY GRANTS PROGRAMS............................................. 14 Program Staffing ................................................................................................................14 Client Recruitment and Retention ............................................