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Guilford County, NC – During a special work session on Thursday, October 6, 2022, the Guilford County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) allocated the county’s remaining $37 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Relief funds. With Thursday’s Board action, Guilford County has now voted to allocate nearly all $104,339,752 in federal ARPA funds according to the priorities established by the BOCC following considerable community input and proposals from dozens of communities and organizations.
Funding approved at Thursday’s ARPA work session includes:
Healthy Childhood Environments:
$10 million Integrated Collaborative Service Network – funding to support a partnership to create an integrated system designed to help coordinate and deliver services to Guilford County residents in need.
$1.5 million Expand Navigation Services and Referral System – funding to Ready for School, Ready for Life to support a service navigator in each OB/GYN and pediatric practice in Guilford County. Starting prenatally, navigators act as liaisons between families and local service providers, social service organizations, and government representatives, and are engaged in community outreach, screening, document preparation, and application assistance and intake.
$1 million Youth & Young Adult Engagement & Education – funding for the Tomorrow’s Titans program to utilize methods to support mental, physical, financial, social, and overall safety and well-being for youth ages 14-18 and young adults ages 19-24. The program aims to decrease violence among youth, reduce the number of youth and young adults entering and re-entering the detention and criminal justice systems, and encourage skills training and full-time employment that provides a living wage and benefits for young adults.
$500,000 Shift_Ed (formerly Say Yes Guilford) – to address barriers impacting student success from birth through a career by using an Educational Continuum of Care approach. This approach aims to create an evidence-based talent pipeline that positively impacts individuals, communities, and industries located in Guilford County.
Housing & Homelessness
$8 million Guilford County Housing and Homelessness Task Force – to support the new interagency task force charged with identifying and enacting initiatives to address housing instability and other issues leading to experiences of homelessness in Guilford County.
$2.2 million Eviction Mediation – funding to continue expansion of the Tenant Education, Advocacy, and Mediation Project (TEAM) through Legal Aid North Carolina, Inc. and UNC-G. The TEAM program provides legal representation, mediation services, and help with rental assistance applications right outside Small Claims eviction court in both Greensboro and High Point. The program offers services to both tenants and landlords to help residents avoid an eviction judgment and remain in their homes.
Behavioral Health & Substance Misuse Resources
$3 million Recovery Housing & Residential Programs – The program will implement and expand substance use disorder treatment and transitional housing services for pregnant women and women with children. Treatment will be evidence‐based and person-centered.
$1.5 million Emergency Therapeutic Transitional Foster Care – funding to support therapeutic services for foster youth who are experiencing persistent mental illness. The goal is to improve placement stability for high needs youth while awaiting transition to a higher level of care.
Access to Health Care
$2.2 million School-based Telehealth – funding to Cone Health to expand telehealth services to 20 additional Title 1 schools as part of the overall goal to have telehealth services available in all 51 Title 1 elementary schools. Cone Health established a pilot telehealth program in 2021 in three Title 1 elementary schools to address absenteeism, improve access to pediatric medical care, and reduce unnecessary trips to emergency departments.
Small Business, Economic & Workforce Development
$2.5 million ArtsGreensboro – to support artists working to recover from the economic impacts created by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a framework for a new, more sustainable arts sector. The investment will provide creatives, artists, and arts organizations tools and resources to become financially stronger and better able to serve the community and thrive in a post-pandemic environment.
$2 million Nussbaum Center – to support completion of phase one of The Steelhouse project which aims to be a manufacturing incubator, creating opportunities for farm and food producers, while providing services for under-resourced residents, and creating a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, small businesses, artisans and Entrepreneur Support Organizations. The project includes a year-round farmer’s market, a medical clinic, and small businesses.
$1.2 million Action Greensboro – to support programs to develop and connect the Guilford County workforce to industry and equitably meet economic and business demands for a twenty-first century workforce.
$300,000 Forge Greensboro – the community maker space helps reduce and remove barriers by providing access to cost-prohibitive tools and equipment. The funding will support equipment purchase, repair, and maintenance and allow for improved training and mentoring capacity.
$1 million Transportation Task Force – to convene and support a new interagency task force to identify transportation challenges and enact initiatives to support transportation improvements for Guilford County’s growing workforce and underserved communities.
The BOCC also voted to allocate $500,000 to the Town of Sedalia to support ARPA-eligible community projects.
Guilford County received $104 million in ARPA funds, delivered in two tranches in July 2021 and July 2022. More than 2,200 Guilford County residents participated in community outreach events and online feedback forums to share their priorities for investment of ARPA dollars. Using this input information, the BOC identified investment priorities of: Healthy Early Childhood Environments; Small Business, Economy & Workforce Development; County COVID needs; Strong Community; Access to Healthcare; Broadband & Digital Inclusion; Behavioral Health & Substance Misuse; and Housing & Homelessness. In February 2022, the county issued a Growth & Recovery Request for Ideas (RFI) for ARPA funding to garner collaborative project proposals for both near and long-term recovery from COVID-19 and its negative economic impacts. The county received 75 requests totaling more than $280 million.
“From the urban centers of Greensboro and High Point to the small towns and rural areas of Guilford County, we listened to our residents who shared how they envisioned a community revived and renewed after so many dark days during the pandemic,” said Guilford County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston. “With today’s vote, we are pleased to partner with our community to deliver initiatives to serve residents in all corners of Guilford County across a broad range of needs including seeding economic growth and training our workforce; improving overall well-being for our residents; giving all the county’s kids a chance to thrive; protecting kids and adults who face abuse; supporting people who are experiencing homelessness, mental health, and substance misuse crisis; improving emergency services; and much, much more. Now the work really begins. We look forward to continuing to work with our community partners to build back better, stronger, more resilient and inclusive than before.”
Thursday’s meeting is the fifth in a series of work sessions to review proposals for ARPA funding that align with BOCC priorities. Including the proposals approved by the BOCC Thursday, the county has now allocated all $104 million to programs supporting each priority area.
To see a breakdown of the county’s ARPA funding, read about eligible ARPA funding uses, and learn more about the community’s feedback, visit the Guilford County COVID Recovery Funding website.
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