A great group of SFF grantees and other leaders recently joined us to learn more about the lessons- and the opportunities- stemming from implementing the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). They shared the following tools:
Bay Area Recovery Dollars Tracker: Jennifer Tran, Director of the National Equity Atlas, introduced the Bay Area Recovery Dollars Tracker and shared top-level takeaways. This tool focuses on how cities and counties spent their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds across the nine-county Bay Area.
Strategic Communications: Bilen Mesfin, founder and CEO of Change Consulting, shared best practice communications tools to support cross-issue messaging to help make the case in city and county budget processes.
Putting the tools to use: Christa Brown, SFF’s Assoc. Dir. for State Policy and Advocacy, moderated a discussion with a group of advocates from around the Bay Area:
- Dan Geiger of Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition,
- Melissa Jones of BARHII, and
- Jhumpa Bhattacharya of The Maven Collaborative
These leaders shared how they have already used and plan to use the tools. They discussed ongoing advocacy opportunities for targeted, equity-oriented investments to support low-income Black and Brown communities.
Additional Resources:
- Video Recording: The video has presentations on the tracker (@Min 9:21) and strategic communications (@ Min 23:32). It ends with a short group discussion with advocates (@ Min 36:13)
- Joint statement: The group of organizations which helped us develop the tools above issued a joint statement with a call to action for unity among advocates and how to approach remaining ARPA funds and future investments. Sign on to the statement. Read the full statement.
