• By Todd Luck
• Posted Monday, March 14, 2022

County Commissioners invest in community with ARPA funds

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has approved major investments in the community in the first round of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations.

The County received more than $74 million in APRA funds. Commissioners approved $18.2 million to offset revenue loss due to the pandemic that will be allocated from FY22-FY24 and $7.2 million for premium pay for eligible County workers who performed essential work during the pandemic.

The County received 176 applications from departments and local organizations requesting funding allocations. Between the Commissioners’ two meetings on Feb. 17 and March 3, more than $27 million was allocated, with about $20 million left over that will be allocated in Round 2. The County will announce when it is accepting applications for the next round of funding.

Below are the funding requests approved in Round 1 of ARPA:

Approved Feb. 17, 2022

Children's Law Center of NC: Expanded Legal Advocacy, $840,000. Funding to expand and continue its legal advocacy for children involved in civil domestic violence cases, high conflict custody cases and matters addressing the education of children with disabilities, facing disciplinary issues and dealing with mental health issues that affect school performance.

Crosby Scholars: Existing Programs Expansion, $800,000. To expand Senior Program advising activities for Title 1 students, offering additional tutoring to address learning loss due to COVID-19, empowering parents to be educational advocates for their children, continuing financial literacy programming and individual guidance about FAFSA and college funding.

Downtown Winston Salem Partnership: Advertising and Marketing, $15,000. For marketing and advertising to promote tourism and hospitality in downtown Winston-Salem.

Family Services Inc: Behavioral Healthcare programming, $627,661. To offer evidenced-based behavioral healthcare to residents of Forsyth County.

Financial Pathways of the Piedmont: Foreclosure & Financial Counseling, $344,000. To prevent loss of housing due to a household’s inability to pay their mortgage by providing foreclosure counseling and financial education and directing clients to State mortgage assistance programs.

Flywheel Foundation: The Come Up Accelerator, $30,700. To support the development of The Come Up Accelerator in partnership with HUSTLE Winston-Salem, which will invest in and provide education and support services to early-stage startups led by entrepreneurs from underrepresented, impacted, or disproportionately impacted areas and communities.

Forsyth County Government: Bipolar Ionization Equipment, $225,000. For the installation of bipolar ionization equipment at Public Health, Department of Social Services, Government Center, and Animal Control to improve indoor air quality by enhancing the removal of particulates from the airstream that could have COVID-19 virus clinging to them.

Forsyth County Community & Economic Development: Highway 65 Waterline $500,000. For a project to extend public water access to a community near Rural Hall currently relying on private wells with a risk of contamination.

Forsyth County Department of Social Services: Substance Abuse Navigator Pilot, $75,000. For a three-year pilot for a contracted full-time position to address substance abusing parents who have children in foster care by linking them to substance use services, providing follow-up with treatment providers, and updates to the Court.

Forsyth Technical Community: College Nursing Program Expansion, $548,268. For leading-edge nursing education simulation software that will augment clinical instruction for students in Forsyth Tech’s nursing program and assist students who have been unable to complete the program due to attendance barriers.

Kaleideum: Prism Initiative Programming, $100,000. An educational program for K-12 children that also provides mentoring opportunities for adults studying and working in innovation, engineering, and manufacturing fields in collaboration with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS), local universities, private business, and many others.

Legal Aid: Attorney and Bilingual Paralegal for Bridges to Hope, $300,000. For an attorney and bilingual paralegal for the County's Bridges to Hope Family Justice Center to provide advice, counsel, and direct representation in court to at least 300 Forsyth County domestic relations victims per year.

Piedmont Triad Regional Development Council: IDD Community Research and Planning, $150,000. To contract with an organization to study best practices in the development of a community assisting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities that will include housing and wraparound services.

Shepherd's Center of Winston-Salem: Older Adult Transportation, $300,000. To provide essential transportation access to medical appointments and other needs for older adults.

Tourism Development Authority: Marketing and Advertising, $1.5 million. For Visit Winston-Salem to strategically implement targeted marketing messaging to leisure, meetings, conventions, and sporting event organizers.

Trellis Supportive Care: Nutrition & Patient Assistance Programs, $32,000.Two-year funding to provide monthly deliveries of nutritious groceries and produce to 25 low-income patients annually and provide support up to $300 for patients and families who qualify as low income.

Whole Man Ministries of NC: Homeless Veteran Housing, $35,000. For the Housing 4 Our Heroes program, which will assist 20-30 homeless veterans with housing, offer a carpentry and construction mentoring program, and provide case management to connect veterans with various support groups.

Family Services Inc: Child Development Center at the Commons, $500,000 (Pending final Board approval). For down payment to buy property at 1430 Felicity Lane at The Commons of Forsyth County that will be converted into a center that can serve up to 101 children, ages birth to five, from low-income families enrolled in Family Services Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

Forsyth County Government: Behavioral Health Campus Enhancements, $2.4 million. (Pending final Board approval). For an upfit of the 2nd floor of the Highland Avenue Center and a renovation of the auditorium located at Annex 1 on Highland Avenue to enhance mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services.

Senior Services: Intergenerational Center for Arts & Wellness, $500,000 (Pending final Board approval). For construction of a facility that’ll bring health, wellness, arts, and intergenerational program partners under one roof to provide programs and services to approximately 20,000 older adults annually who are living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

YMCA of NW NC: REACH Center, $1 million. (Pending final Board approval). For turning the former Winston Lake YMCA into the REACH Center, which will work through partnerships to distribute meals, serve as a programmatic hub for public health and human services in East Winston, support individuals seeking to enter the workforce, provide literacy instruction and job and entrepreneurial skills training, and partner with Goodwill Industries to provide workforce development and career counseling, and provide character development and enrichment opportunities for youth.

Approved March 3, 2022

Arts Council of Winston Salem and Forsyth County: Subrecipient Programming & Technical Assistance, $4.5 million. Provides aid to the local arts and cultural sector including arts and cultural organizations and artist small businesses through new revitalization and community-based arts programming, arts workforce development programs, and technical assistance.

Clemmons Food Pantry: Food Pantry Operations, $25,000.To aid in the loss of its income from private and community donations and from the inability to hold planned fundraisers in 2020 and 2021.

Creative Center of NC: FC Collaborative Assets Project, $300,000. To conduct an in-depth asset mapping “discovery,” technical assistance, and impact evaluation research project on the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the nonprofit organizations of Forsyth County that serve the underserved and impoverished.

Cure Violence: Violence Interruption Program, $1.5 million. To provide evidence-based community violence intervention programs to prevent violence and mitigate its increase during the pandemic by placing violence interrupters in local neighborhoods.

Experiment in Self Reliance & S.G. Atkins CDC: IDA Small Business Program, $1 million. To expand the program to assist up to 10 local small businesses annually and provide enhanced services to assist Low-to-Moderate income businesses in partnership with the County’s Community and Economic Development Department.

Forsyth County Sheriff's Office: Juvenile Intervention and Investigation Team, $2.2 million. Thirty-month funding for a team with eight sworn officers and one non-sworn senior office assistant to fill the enforcement, investigative, and intervention gap for youths involved in gang-related violence, as well as addressing increased youth gun-violence in Forsyth County.

Greater Winston Salem Inc: Workforce Collaboration, $2.5 million. To create a sustainable and co-located workforce training system that synchronizes education and training in partnership with other workforce development entities such as Forsyth Tech and Goodwill.

Imprints Cares: Ready for School Program, $3.3 million. To increase the program’s capacity to meet the growing demands for early childhood learning from birth to five years of age in disproportionately impacted communities in Forsyth County.

Memorial Industrial CDC: Community Garden and Ag. Instruction, $60,000. To support an incubator farm and community garden program at Horizons Park, offering hands-on community garden and agricultural instruction addressing the issues of food security and quality food production.

Monarch: Child Focused ACTT, $250,000. To establish a team in Forsyth County to meet the needs of children ages 6-17 at high risk for placement in a residential treatment facility due to a psychiatric disorder.

Neighborhood's Hands: Food Pantry and Mobile Food Crisis Distributor, $200,000. To increase services of its food pantry and mobile food crisis distribution to provide food assistance to individuals in disproportionately impacted areas.

The Shalom Project: Medical Clinic Program, $50,000. To expand The Shalom Medical Clinic Program to increase patient intake and provide high quality, easily accessible medical care for those in the community who lack access to health care.

United Health Center: Medical Services to Underserved Populations, $865,000.To provide continuous medical, dental and behavioral health care for medically underserved individuals and families in marginalized communities living in Forsyth County by hiring staff and precuring additional medical supplies and equipment.

For more information, including the full list of Round 1 funding applications, visit: https://www.forsyth.cc/erap/arpa.aspx