Explanation
This ordinance authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a subrecipient grant agreement with Besa Community, Inc. in support of the Community Recovery and Neighborhood Initiative.
This past year has underscored the critical role community services play in supporting the social well-being of vulnerable populations and communities. The pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color and low-income communities across the nation. This has shed light on deep-rooted, pre-existing racial, gender, income, and geographic disparities from one neighborhood to the next. This year, Besa Community, Inc. seeks to evolve its programming to better address the prevailing problem of inequity in the accessibility and distribution of community resources.
In the last year, Besa has expanded nonprofit partnerships in many of Columbus’ lowest-income neighborhoods, such as Linden, the Southside, the Near East Side and the West Side (primarily the Hilltop). Besa Community, Inc. has also significantly increased engagement with New Salem Baptist Church’s Food Pantry (Bread of Life Food Pantry) in North Linden and LifeCare Alliance in the South Hilltop. While this work, and these partnership expansions, have fallen under the umbrella of Besa Community, Inc.'s “COVID response,” Besa Community, Inc. cannot simply end these engagements when COVID is no longer a threat to the community.
Through the end of 2021, Besa Community, Inc. anticipates managing approximately 20 Community Recovery/Basic Needs projects per month, which will yield the following annual outcomes:
• 240 volunteer engagement events with basic needs and critical service providers
• 2,000 community residents activated through volunteerism
• 5,000 collective service hours dedicated to essential service providing nonprofits
• $100,000 in tangible goods donations through our COVID/Community Recovery supply drives
Besa anticipates the majority of this work will continue to...
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