Centralina Wins NARC Award for its ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program

Each year, the National Association of Regional Councils honors organizations and regional leaders for exceptional programs, service delivery and impact on their respective region. We are pleased to announce that Centralina was honored with the 2023 Major Metro Achievement Award for our work on the ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program. This is an outstanding recognition of the collaborative work of staff in various departments including Government Affairs & Member Engagement, Centralina Community Economic Development and Finance who offered their technical expertise to support our member governments with the complex ARPA funding requirements.

Communities in Need of Support

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) brought approximately $800 million in federal funding to the communities within the Centralina region. Local governments receiving these funds were faced with making strategic spending decisions while navigating complex federal guidelines. For those communities with limited staff capacity and little experience in managing federal funding, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity quickly became a daunting endeavor. Recognizing the range of challenges local governments could encounter in administering their ARPA fund allocations, Centralina Regional Council responded to these needs by launching its ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program.

Innovating & Executing the Program

Centralina uses an innovative approach to execute the ongoing work of the ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program by remaining responsive and adaptable to local government needs and evolving federal ARPA guidance. The program included a variety of presentations, webinars, roundtable discussions and educational materials to keep local government staff and elected officials informed and updated on ARPA-related topics. Some of the major components included:

Peer Consortium

The Peer Consortium is a local government peer-learning group for resources, strategic support and best practice sharing. The idea developed as a result of a local government survey designed to identify topics they were most interested in delving into. The result was a series of 11 virtual sessions featuring a mix of presentations, group discussions, interactive exercises and one-on-one advisement. Each session focused on a specific ARPA-related issue so participants could expand their knowledge and build their internal capacity in areas such as spending plan development, policies and procedures, financial management, elected official engagement, community engagement and public information sharing. The interactive webinars and presentations on ARPA subject matter has provided a platform for building regional relationships and facilitating collaboration across community lines.

Technical Assistance

Centralina offers customized services for individual communities including spending plan strategy development, ordinance and policy document drafting, monitoring oversight to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations and reporting support. Technical assistance services follow a standard framework that is easily customized to meet the unique position and priorities of each local government. Some communities need support in developing a plan for strategically investing their ARPA funds, which they achieve through discussions facilitated by Centralina. Others have sought Centralina’s help in establishing documentation requirements so they could implement a structure for ARPA financial management and record keeping.

Community Partnerships

Centralina has also leveraged its partnerships with other public organizations and state agencies to deliver the ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program. Specifically, Centralina worked with the University of North Carolina’s School of Government to develop content for the Peer Consortium sessions. Also, staff from the North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office regularly provide informative and timely ARPA briefings to the Centralina Board and the Regional Managers Group. 

Looking Back

Through the ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program, Centralina is working to affect positive outcomes in local government ARPA management. The program, which leverages the skills and expertise of Centralina and local government staff in areas such as public administration, financial management, communications, community engagement and grant award management, is helping inform local government strategic decision-making by identifying allowable ARPA investment projects based on eligible uses and local needs. In addition to the monitoring oversight technical assistance support and the Peer Consortium, Centralina developed several resources to aid in ARPA planning and implementation that include:

• ARPA Planning Playbook
• Project & Expenditure Report Quick Guide
• Monitoring Guideline Checklist and Financial
• Audit Best Practices Guide

Through 25 ARPA briefings and ongoing outreach and engagement activities, the program’s regional ARPA information exchange component has reached 80 local governments — 100% of Centralina’s membership plus more than 10 additional communities within the region. To date, Centralina has also provided individual support to 19 local governments, helping to steward more than $62 million in ARPA funding and ensure compliance with federal monitoring and reporting guidelines. Also, by lifting up local governments’ lessons learned and sharing those stories with others, the program promotes the great work communities across the region are undertaking in managing ARPA funding.

Feeback from Peer Consortium Participants:

• “Centralina’s overall support to members and extra support received by consortium participants helped us make sure we had a good process for talking through the decision to use our ARPA funding in the revenue replacement category with our staff and board, as well as formulate a project list for supplanted funds. The biggest impact so far was the technical assistance provided leading up to the first report and all the policy/compliance assistance. We really appreciated working with your team on this.” – Peter Franzese, Town Manager for the Town of Spencer 
• “Explaining our processes to others reinforced my knowledge and served as a kind of revaluation at the same time. My peers asked questions from perspectives that I may not have initially seen, which made me better prepared for answering similar questions from our board and residents. The one-on-one sessions with the monitoring team helped the most” – Chase Norwood, Finance Officer for the Town of Landis  

Looking Ahead

Before the launch of the ARPA Fund Implementation Support Program, local governments in the Centralina region had several sources to turn to for ARPA information. Centralina’s program, however, was the first to offer them a regionally based opportunity for support tailored to their specific needs. Centralina continues to evolve the program and provide ongoing assistance to local governments in managing their ARPA allocations through the duration of the federal funding opportunity. Not only can the program be replicated in other regions, but the framework can also be adapted to convene, assist and educate local governments on other complex topics.

If you were unable to participate in the Peer Consortium or other aspects of the ARPA program and would like assistance, please reach put to us at info@centralina.org. You can also access the information covered and aforementioned resources via our Member Portal.