Background
This ordinance authorizes the City Clerk to enter into a grant agreement with Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT) in support of the Equity Now Coalition and to allow for reimbursement for expenses incurred since December 1, 2020.
The Equity Now Coalition’s work began on March 18, 2020 when President/CEO of the Columbus Urban League (CUL), Stephanie Hightower, convened a COVID-19 virtual meeting on March 18, 2020 with the immediate goal of sharing information to mitigate the pandemic’s disparate impact on Black and other People of Color (POC). The weekly COVID-19 Alliance meetings began on March 26, 2020. The urgent necessity for these virtual meetings was further exacerbated by the public death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Mr. Floyd’s death, against the backdrop of the pandemic, set the stage for protests in every state in our nation and across the globe. These unprecedented times present a perhaps fleeting opportunity to make great strides toward equitable race and gender outcomes in the City of Columbus.
This funding will allow the Equity Now Coalition to continue to develop racially-equitable responses to the COVID-19 pandemic for the Black and other People of Color communities in Columbus including research work that will focus on building out the first two phases of ENC's data management platform and smart data dashboard for Central Ohio; continuing communications, outreach and engagement work including focus groups, a community survey; and building out ENC's outreach & engagement plan to sustain continuous feedback loops with community stakeholder groups.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Neighborhood Initiatives subfund.
Emergency action is requested in order to avoid any delay in providing the resources necessary to the Equity Now Coalition to develop racially-equitable responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title
To authorize the City Clerk to enter into a grant agreement with Partners Achieving Community Transf...
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