Cuyahoga County Announces Details on Pay for Success Initiative

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has selected FrontLine, a local mental health organization, to serve as a service provider for its first Pay for Success project. The County will pioneer an intensive effort to keep homeless families together by using private investor funding. If the project succeeds, the County can save millions in foster care payments over the next five years.

Ed FitzGerald, County Executive, has advocated for Pay for Success in Cuyahoga County since 2011. "I want to transform how human services are provided in Cuyahoga County," said FitzGerald. "Our Division of Children and Family Services has led the country in child welfare reform, reducing the number of children in foster care in Cuyahoga County from over 6,000 to 1,700 in 10 years. With that said, the families that remain in the system are high-need and deeply systems-involved. This partnership will use evidence based solutions to stabilize these families." The County's project is the first Pay for Success procurement initiated by a County-level government.

FrontLine, Third Sector Capital Partners and Case Western Reserve University will work with the County's Division of Children and Family Services, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to implement the program. The George Gund Foundation and Cleveland Foundation are providing grant funding to develop the Pay for Success project. Read more at the County's website here.

Press Coverage:

Cuyahoga County to test new way to raise money for social services - Cleveland Plain-Dealer

Cuyahoga County launches program to help keep homeless families together - The News-Herald

Cuyahoga County may try a new approach to foster care - Associated Press via Canton Repository; also featured in the Defiance Crescent-News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,  Columbus WBNS10-TV, the Massillon Independent and the San Francisco Chronicle.