The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission voted to adopt a framework for the Innovation Partnership Fund (IPF), the state program created under Proposition 1 that will provide up to $20 million a year for five years to support innovative behavioral health programs.

Commission staff presented the fourth version of the framework as the product of months of stakeholder engagement, describing IPF as funding “new or adapted approaches to solving persistent problems” and emphasizing principles of equity, sustainability, lived-experience leadership, and alignment with Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) goals. Acting deputy director Melissa Martin Millard told commissioners the timeline for awards depends on approving the RFP outline in January so grants can be awarded and begin by July 1, 2026.

The meeting turned into a broad policy debate. Commissioner Steve Carnivale urged a pause, recommending the commission allow newly appointed members more time to align priorities and to explore financing strategies that could leverage the $100 million authorization into larger capital pools. “We could be anchored literally in billions of dollars of public-private financing,” he said, arguing the commission should not “finance the future of health care with credit cards.”

Other commissioners and dozens of public commenters urged prompt adoption. Supporters argued delay risks the funds being swept in a tight budget year and that the framework is intentionally high-level so the RFP and scoring criteria can be refined through committee work. Multiple community speakers pressed staff and commissioners to ensure the RFP will explicitly allow community-defined evidence practices (CDEPs), prevention and early-intervention models that do not require a clinical diagnosis, and small-scale grants led by community-based organizations.

The commission’s motion to adopt the framework passed following public comment and deliberation. Staff said they will continue to refine RFP-level details with advisory committees and state partners and return an RFP outline in January 2026. The stated next steps are to finalize scoring criteria and procurement language so the RFP can be released in early 2026 and awards made to begin implementation by July 1, 2026.

The commission’s adoption sets the policy parameters for IPF: priority populations named in BHSA (including people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, justice-involved individuals, youth reentering from corrections, and others at risk of institutionalization), an explicit openness to community-defined and nonclinical approaches, and an emphasis on sustainability pathways such as Medi-Cal alignment, philanthropy, or public partnerships. The commission also pledged to explore options for incentivizing CBO-led proposals in scoring and procurement design.

Commission staff and advisory committees will now draft the RFP and scoring criteria, informed by public input and the concerns raised in the meeting. The commission scheduled follow-up committee deliberations to translate the framework’s principles into specific procurement rules and evaluation metrics.