§ 482-a. Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature finds that public policy experts and state and local agencies have been searching for a model of service delivery that will insure programmatically effective and cost-efficient delivery of services to inner-city families and neighborhoods, and that the emerging consensus is that the best models provide comprehensive, coordinated, neighborhood-based and family-focused services. The legislature further finds that New York state's existing network of fifty-eight settlement houses can contribute to providing these comprehensive, coordinated, neighborhood-based and family-focused services in a cost-effective manner, and that the capacity of these settlement houses to provide and enhance these services can be increased if the settlement houses are provided with additional resources to implement greater neighborhood outreach, to direct individuals and family members to appropriate settlement and community-based resources, to monitor the progress of these individuals, and to plan and coordinate intra-agency and community services so that community residents have easy access to a range of services that respond to the varied and often multiple needs of individuals and families.

It is the intent of the legislature to increase the funds available to settlement houses for the purpose of providing a comprehensive range of services to the residents of the neighborhoods they serve, and that funds provided pursuant to this article will be complemented by privately-raised contributions to the settlement-houses for the program services funded pursuant to this article. The legislature does not intend that these funds be used as a substitute for any funds currently available from federal, state or local sources for the provision of neighborhood-based service delivery programs provided by settlement houses.