Jefferson County ARPA Success Stories
Upon receiving American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding, the Board of County Commissioners (“Board”) directed staff to conduct extensive community and employee input. Various methods were used, both on-line and in-person, including a community-wide needs assessment. Key takeaways were categorized into six areas:
- Housing & Homelessness
- Employment Recovery
- Business Supports
- Education & Childcare
- Infrastructure & Public Services
- Health & Social Service Needs
Based on the outreach efforts, the Board approved priority areas and in late 2021 and established eight corresponding task forces. They are:
- Behavioral Health*
- County Services and Operations
- Economic Recovery*
- Food Insecurity
- Housing*
- Public Health & Safety
- Revenue Replacement
- Workforce Readiness*
The task forces brought subject matter experts and county leaders together to consider a range of potential projects, analyze and study the projects impacts to the community as well as ensuring the project met the federal guidelines for ARPA expenditures.
Highlighted on the following pages are just a few of the incredible stories of the efforts and community collaboration in distributing ARPA funding to those who so desperately in need.
We are continuing to evaluate projects, programs, and initiatives and will have more success stories to come in the following weeks and months! Stay tuned….
TASK FORCE: FOOD INSECURITY
Jefferson County is committed to fostering a local food system that ensures equitable access to nutritious, locally produced food that reflects cultural preferences. Supporting Jefferson County farmers, investing in food systems infrastructure, improving organizational community engagement, commitment to racial and social equity, and striving for strong collaboration among organizations and communities are a few ways we will achieve our goal.
Community-based food justice organizations must be connected with meaningful resources, including funding, training, technical assistance, and tools for building organizational resilience. The Food System Grant is an opportunity to invest $1,700,000 from ARPA into Jefferson County’s long-term food security and collective impact efforts. This program will be primarily administered and coordinated by Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) Food Systems Team and Jefferson County’s Rescue Team.
On November 28, following a robust review process, 12 community-based organizations received grants for a total of $1,599,855 of the total $1,700,000 available. One such grantee is Hunger Free Golden Coalition. A community collaborative united around a common cause – ensuring that all members of our community have equitable access to healthy, culturally relevant, and fresh food by taking a holistic approach to their efforts by focusing on all aspects of our local food system. Their grant dollars will go toward expanding community engagement, racial equity, resilience, sustainability, and collaboration in an existing partnership in the City of Golden, to create economic opportunity for farmers, increase nutritious food access, and address root causes of food insecurity.
TASK FORCE: ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The Economic Recovery Task Force concentrates on funding for county infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, airport, public works equipment, wildfire prevention projects and programs, like Jefferson County Wildfire Safe; broadband strategy and infrastructure investments.
To address upwards of $500M in backlogged road and bridge projects, the Task Force will fund (or match) $20M to address critical projects from the $70M that are in danger of imminent failure. Among the several projects funded by ARPA include Belleview Avenue over Bergen Ditch Culvert, Drew Hill Culvert and 3.3 miles of bridge deck deteriorating north of Deckers.
TASK FORCE: HOUSING
The Housing Task Force focuses on pressing community needs such as affordable housing and emergency shelters near public transportation and “high walkability” to employment, shopping, parks, and other services. A navigation center which will link our community to services and housing will also be researched and evaluated.
We will utilize $250,000 of ARPA funding, combined with a DOLA Innovative Affordable Housing Plan grant, to develop a 15-year housing plan to assess and inform the county about housing needs in the Jefferson County community.
*Align with the State’s priority ARPA areas.
Reference
https://www.jeffco.us/4277/American-Rescue-Plan-Act
Interactive Dashboard at https://www.jeffco.us/4277/American-Rescue-Plan-Act
