Interested in getting ARPA Money, Free Resources & Powerful Strategies for Your PACEs Coalition?

Bill Barberg 2/11/2212:30 PM

PACEs coalitions rarely have the money they need to achieve their aspirations for preventing and addressing ACEs. With the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) providing staggering amounts of money to local governments and school districts, many coalition leaders might be wondering if there are ways to tap into that funding.

The answer is YES, if you’re willing to be a team player and to take some initiative to make strategic connections.

BILLIONS are Now Available

One of the biggest parts of ARPA is the Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding, which includes over $122 BILLION going to states, 90% of which is passed on to school districts. This 7-minute video explains the ESSER Funding and how it can support community-wide efforts, including PACEs coalitions and efforts to improve early childhood development.

In addition to spending focused on reducing the risk of people getting COVID-19 in the school facilities, school districts are supposed to use this money to develop and implement strategies to meet students’ social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs. That’s why teaming up with PACEs coalitions makes so much sense!

How to Partner with School Districts

School Districts across the country currently have access to this money. It is NOT a typical competitive grant program. They are supposed to spend it quickly—and they have a great deal of flexibility. However, they do need to be able to justify HOW they are using it. And, frankly, many school districts are overwhelmed with many challenges they face and are struggling with how to best use the ESSER funding.

This 9-minute video shares excerpts from the January 27^th webinar that targeted school district leaders to help them see how they can benefit from collaborating with community-based organizations and coalitions like those working on preventing trauma and expanding trauma-informed practices. To help school district leaders understand how they benefit by “sub-granting” some of their funding to your coalition, try sharing this link with school district leaders. https://improvepophealth.org/o...ing-local-coalitions

Upcoming Webinars

I’m leading a series of 4 webinars (with “encore” live presentations of two of them) to introduce these topics, which I describe in this 2-minute video. The next two webinars are ideal for PACEs-related coalitions.

The webinar on Feb. 17 shares some of the powerful options for spending some of the ESSER funding to positively impact youth.

Feb. 17 Webinar

Learn more and register at: https://improvepophealth.org/arp-funds

The webinar on Feb. 22 focuses on the process for partnering with school districts and making the most of the ACEs & Resilience Resource Commons for Communities (ARRCC).

Feb 22 webinar

Learn more and register at: https://improvepophealth.org/5-ways-live-encore

There is no charge for these webinars, and you'll learn how to access many other free resources to streamline and accelerate your important work.

Add Comment

Comments (1)

Newest · Oldest · Popular

Carey SippFormer Director of Strategic Partnerships

Bill, thank you! Thank you for posting and for creating these webinars. Securing ARPA funding is daunting task to most of us. We know it’s there. It needs to be spent. Our communities have the needs. Organizations don’t have to be 501 C-3 nonprofits to apply. And yet finding out whom to ask, how to make the ask, what to ask for, etc. has been so challenging that we know much of this money — sometimes more than $1 billion for a single county — sits, unspent. While people doing the work are desperate for funds. And time is running out to ask for the money!

Jesse Kohler of CTIPP and I put together several webinars early on about applying and urging PACEs Connection and CTIPP members to apply. We have worked to keep the message going that PACEs Connection communities can and need to apply.

Thank you for studying all of this and coming back with more answers and encouragement. I hope your work — and graciousness to offer this counsel at no charge — will inspire many of our communities to apply for ARPA funding.

Many of our communities in the SE offer wonderful trainings to help community members learn how to deal with the stress of the pandemic, natural disasters, ongoing injustices of racism, poverty, inequality, life in these challenging times. Being able to fund more of this work of sharing the Community Resiliency Mode (CRM) and Resources for Resilience (R4R) trainings would be terrific. The trainings have given communities a common language, objective, skills, and tools and have been a rallying point as they educate the community about PACEs science during the trainings, and show the consequences of not having ways to relieve toxic stress; share solitons to help. I’d love to see our PACEs Connection communities apply for and receive funding for this easy-do-organize, deliver and quantify support.

Again, thanks for making this body of work on a much-needed topic available at no charge. I am looking forward to learning more!

Below I’ve listed links to PACEs Connection/CTIPP webinars on securing federal funding:

Trauma Informed Policy and Funding https://youtu.be/U_VGarPcnwI

How to Secure Federal Funding for Your PACEs Initiative https://youtu.be/yhyV23e9f_g

There’s also the Resiliency Within podcast Jesse Kohler of CTIPP and I did with host Elaine Miller-Karas on Trauma Informed Mental Health Funding:

https://open.spotify.com/episo...oTwtmyTluKNwWUlyih5Q

2/12/226:42 AM

Skip to main content

Add Comment

Membership Required

Remove From Your Block List

Manage Follow Preferences

Block

Please wait...