Projects by Service
Grant Development
San Mateo County Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Act Grant Pathways for Women: Gibson & Associates coordinated the planning process and served as the primary grant-writer to develop an Assertive Community Treatment program for mentally ill female offenders in San Mateo County. We conducted and presented research on evidence based programs and approaches, which was used to inform program design. The proposal effectively integrated mental health and criminal justice perspectives and approaches. The proposal overcame a 15 priority county deficit awarded to other counties who had previously lost funding and received almost $1 million in funding.
Healthy Start Infant Mortality Initiative: In partnership with Research Development Associates, research and design of an Afro-Centric, social model Healthy Start initiative was designed to reduce infant mortality in Oakland. The process involved convening a large number of neighborhood level focus groups to engage the target population, first by obtaining their input and then by engaging them in one of several task forces. The resulting model departed significantly from other models funded by the federal government. Oakland Healthy Start achieved the highest outcomes in the country and became a national model for infant mortality reduction.
Homeless Continuum of Care Development: G&A facilitated research and planning for the development of both Alameda and Contra Costa County’s Continuum of Homeless Services. In Alameda County, this involved developing the plan for acquiring and renovating a handful of large downtown hotels that had been damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake and creating a network of SRO’s linked to supportive services. In Contra Costa County, G&A served as the grants coordinator for three years, generating tens of millions of dollars in grant funding and helping to transform a largely fragmented array of service providers into a cohesive system of services.
Reading First (Oakland, San Francisco, Pittsburg). G&A wrote SFUSD, OUSD, and PUSD's Reading First grants which transformed literacy education in each district. These grants provided millions of dollars in funding for supporting improvements in K-3 literacy instruction including use of coaches, use of benchmark assessment data, and ongoing and systemic professional development.
Early Reading First (Oakland): G&A worked with Early Childhood Education department in OUSD to develop the Early Reading First model of coaching, professional development, and support for early childhood education teachers.
Smaller Learning Communities (High Schools): Modesto's Smaller Learning Communities grant provides five years of funding for Johansen High School to develop wall-to-wall smaller learning communities for all their students to complete rigorous A-G requirements.
California Math and Science Project (Science- SFUSD): The WISE project in SFUSD was a four-year grant providing teachers with professional development opportunities in science, including site coaches, intensive content support from faculty experts from City College, San Francisco State University, the Cal Academy of Sciences, and the UC Museum of Paleontology. Data indicated that students in "WISE" classrooms outperformed students at the same site not in WISE, students from matched sites not in WISE, the district, and the state, in both Science and Literacy.
California Math and Science Project (San Francisco: Mathematics): The PRIME project in SFUSD is a three-year providing intensive content support from faculty experts from San Francisco State University and the Lawrence Hall of Science, followed by in-classroom support from district mathematics coaches.
California Math and Science Project (San Francisco Research Grant): Based on the success of the WISE project, the WISE II grant is a three-year research grant replicating the WISE I model of professional development to a new cohort of elementary school teachers in grades 3-5. The research poses the question, what are the elements of a WISE classroom's science instruction, and which types of professional development have the greatest impact on teacher instruction. Data indicated that students of teachers in the program outperformed matched comparison and district-wide students annually in both literacy and science and had a smaller achievement gap than students in non-participant sites.
