Madison council adopts revised 2026 Crisis Intervention and Prevention RFP emphasizing youth, lived experience

The Madison Common Council on Aug. 5 unanimously adopted a substitute to release Legistar 89,042, the 2026 Crisis Intervention and Prevention Services request for proposals, which condenses prior priority areas, emphasizes noncredentialed staff with lived experience and requires specific youth-focused outcome measures.

City Community Development Department manager Yolanda Shelton Morris told the council the RFP moves from three priority areas to two — “crisis intervention support services” and “prevention services and activities” — and brings recovery and stabilization work under the prevention category. She said the RFP removes the specific program label “case management” to broaden eligibility to agencies that provide similar services without a formal certification and to “emphasize the importance of noncredentialed staff with lived experience and community trust.”

The RFP is scheduled for release Friday, Aug. 8, and awards would begin Jan. 1, 2026, for a four-year contract cycle, Shelton Morris said. For youth-specific outcomes, the RFP requires agencies to track three indicators: a decrease in incidents of violence or conflict involving participating youth; increased community stabilization reported by youth and families; and improved school attendance, engagement or academic performance.

Why it matters: The changes alter how the city funds and evaluates programs aimed at crisis response and youth prevention, shifting emphasis toward place-based strategies and community trust. Council members asked how the city will monitor performance, how the change in language around “case management” will affect documentation, and what supports exist for agencies that miss targets.

Shelton Morris described the city’s monitoring and support: contract managers in the Community Resources unit will work with funded agencies, the city requires quarterly progress and demographic reports plus an annual report, staff perform midyear check-ins and on-site monitoring as needed, and funded agencies participate in a cohort for peer learning. Reports and reimbursement requests are uploaded to the division’s Provider Gateway system; Shelton Morris said the city does not currently host a publicly browsable repository of those quarterly reports and that staff would need to pull and compile documents for alder review.

Council members pressed for clarity on documentation. Alder Knox asked how progress would be documented if providers do not hold traditional case-management certifications; Shelton Morris replied the change is largely a language shift intended to allow agencies that provide equivalent services under different titles (for example, “resource service facilitation”) to qualify while still enabling agencies with professional certifications to apply.

Alder Madison, who said she had pressed for several of the RFP changes in prior meetings, urged fellow alders to engage with CDD and local partners to target programming where youth congregate — for example, West and East Towne Mall and neighborhood parks — and cited work with Madison Police Department to identify heat-map locations of youth involvement.

The council adopted the substitute and recorded a unanimous vote in favor of the item.

Details and next steps: staff will release the RFP as drafted on Aug. 8; recommended awards from the RFP process will begin Jan. 1, 2026, and successful providers will be monitored quarterly through Provider Gateway and by assigned contract managers.