The American Rescue Plan

The Washtenaw County Racial Equity office has contracted with the Center to evaluate the Washtenaw County Rescue Plan (WCRP). This $71 million initiative was funded through the American Rescue Plan. Priorities for the WCRP were as follows:

1. A Broadband Task Force to expand high-speed broadband internet infrastructure into those areas of the county that presently have no high-speed broadband internet access.
2. Building an equity driven health department to support the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and address health disparities and the social determinants of health to promote health equity.
3. Developing and launching the Mobile Services Support Initiative to bring services to high-need communities where they are, instead of asking the public to come to County facilities.
4. Creating a Community Priority Fund to support under-resourced communities, with a focus on grassroots agencies in the 48197 and 48198 areas. The fund aims to address ARPA-eligible categories, including: 
   1. Community Violence Interventions, Addressing Education Disparities, Expanding Early Childhood Education, Providing Direct Assistance to Households, and Addressing Housing and Homelessness.
5. Children savings Accounts (CSAs) evaluation.

A total of 23 organizations were awarded grant funding through the Community Priority Fund. The Center is working closely with each of these grantees to evaluate the projects this funding allowed them to pursue. This includes the creation of Impact Statements for each grantee, which they can share with the community at the conclusion of the funding period (12/31/24).

Washtenaw Community College provided non-profit management technical assistance training to CPF grantees for additional capacity building support.

The final report on the entire Washtenaw County Rescue Plan will place the CPF work in context of all the other priorities the County pursued with ARPA funding.

Community Priority Fund Snapshot

• Evaluation plan across 23 grantees
• Performance period from April 2023 to December 31, 2024 
• Grantees are funded by ARPA dollars across 5 categories
  • Community Violence
  • Expanding Early Childhood Education
  • Addressing Housing & Homelessness 
  • Direct Assistance to Households 
  • Addressing Educational Disparities 
• Deliverables:
  • Host tailored group sessions to conceptualize racial equity & build capacity 
  • Technical assistance throughout project
  • Logic-models
  • Tailored evaluation plans specific to organizations needs
  • Impact statement visuals