Title
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) - Aid to Nonprofit Organizations Program (B)
Explanation:
On May 13, 2021, the City Commission directed the Office of Equity & Inclusion to develop an Equity COVID Budget Tool to assist with the equitable spending of ARPA funds awarded to the City. On May 27, 2021, the Commission reviewed and adopted the Equity COVID Budget tool and assigned the timeline for implementation. The Equity COVID Budget Tool is included as Attachment A.
The initial intention by the City was to have City Commissioners submit proposals for projects they wished to support through the use of ARPA funds. The Equity COVID Budget Tool was intended to be the tool used to evaluate individual Commissioners’ proposals and assist with funding discussions and decision making amongst the City Commission as a body. Based upon the public discussion of the process, nonprofit organizations, in addition to the Commissioners, submitted proposals to the Office of Equity & Inclusion.
In late June 2021, the Office of Equity & Inclusion held four engagement sessions to allow the public to comment on proposals from nonprofit organizations and for the public to offer new ideas that may have been missed. The Office of Communications and Engagement assisted with promoting these engagement sessions via the City’s social media accounts, GNVnews, Video News Release, press release, direct outreach to groups to distribute flyers and information on the program (i.e. school board, chamber, churches, neighborhood groups, CareerSource) and radio ads such as PRAIZE and 98 JAMZ.
On August 10, 2021 a Final Report of the Equity COVID Budget Tool and citizen engagement process was produced by the Office of Equity & Inclusion. This report is included in Attachment B. Upon review, it was determined that more citizen engagement could be necessary and a process for soliciting and evaluating proposals based on the final expenditure categories, as well as ensuring quarterly reporting on all...
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