Grant funds now available for ongoing pandemic impacts

Grant funds now available for ongoing pandemic impacts

 Richfield, Minn. (January 18, 2023) – While the COVID-19 pandemic may feel ‘over’ to many, the lingering physical, economic and emotional impacts are still churning within the lives of many people in the community. With that understanding, the City of Richfield is making available $150,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds available for services and activities that help ease the negative impacts of COVID on our community.

“We recognize that many of our community members are still feeling impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted Assistant Community Development Director, Julie Urban. “People have experienced reduced income, lost employment, housing instability, food insecurity, social isolation, poor mental health and other long-lasting impacts.”

The funds will be distributed to non-profit organizations on a competitive basis. These groups must serve economically disadvantaged residents in ways that helps address the long-term burden of COVID through programs, projects, and/or activities. Work to improve healthy food access, housing security, safe living standards, economic stability or community building would all qualify under the terms of the program.

“It is important to our policymakers that we use some of these federal dollars to aid in the ongoing recovery of our community,” noted Urban. “We’ve done our best with each round of funding to try and make ground-level impacts in Richfield.”

A copy of the Request for Proposals and the application are available online at https://www.richfieldmn.gov/arpagrants. Applications are due at 4:00 pm on Thursday, February 2, 2023. Questions should be directed to Julie Urban, Assistant Community Development Director, at jurban@richfieldmn.gov.

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