Abstract for Assembly of Governments Meeting Discussion Items

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Orange County Long Term Recovery Responses I P(47 1 i ■ Board of County Town Council Board of Commissioners Town Council Commissioners Town of Chapel Hill Town of Hillsborough Town of Carrboro Orange County 405 Martin Luther King Jr 101 E. Orange St. 301 W Main Street 300 West Tryon Street Blvd. Hillsborough, NC 27278 Carrboro, NC 27510 Hillsborough, NC 27278 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Dear Commissioners and Councilmembers, The Orange County Long Term Recovery and Transformation Plan began as an idea in August of 2020 to envision the county's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.This innovative plan aims to address all sectors of the community and incorporate the voice of all stakeholders.We truly believe that this is a plan inspired by the community, representing their needs and concerns.The past year has consisted of meetings,outreach, and revisions to fine tune a comprehensive plan for the county. We like to view this plan as a tool; a tool that can be used by various organizations to track their progress on recovery goals and guide their decision-making. Many initiatives in this plan are already well underway,and this plan serves to complement their work while providing a lens of equity. You,as an elected official, play an important role in this process as well.You have a unique understanding of your community, paired with the ability to serve as a catalyst for monumental change.You have been,and continue to be, an integral resource for this project, providing feedback on plans for your specific jurisdiction.We have listened to those ideas and have discussed them with the community members who continue to build this plan.Attached to this document is the summary of responses to your questions. Our feedback aims to address the main themes in your questions as well as offers various solutions. Through collaboration with community partners,we have made a few changes to the plan. One of these changes includes repositioning the Cultural Resources into the Economic Recovery Support Function.This change helps to streamline Initiative 5.2.3:Support and promote community-driven multicultural arts projects and programs that enable community healing, recovery,and resilience. By separating arts from natural resources,we are allowing for a stronger focus on both of these individual support functions.We also want to place an emphasis on this plan being built from an equity lens. In the initial development of the plan,we created a strategy prioritization methodology.This planning process heavily drew from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity's(GARE) racial equity tool methodology to inform the process used to create the plan.To the greatest extent possible,the plan itself draws directly from,and prioritizes the input of those residents most impacted by the pandemic,our communities of color. We greatly value your cooperation in this project,and look forward to working alongside you to support the goal to strengthen the County's critical physical,social,and institutional systems—while creating a brighter future for all residents. Sincerely, The Project Management Team Rebecca Buzzard—Special Projects Manager,Carrboro Travis Myren—Dep.County Manager,Orange County Margaret Hauth—Planning Director,Hillsborough Sarah Pickhardt—Dep. EM Coordinator,Orange County Annette Moore—Director of Human Rights and John Richardson—Community Resilience Officer,Chapel Hill Relations,Orange County Kirby Saunders—ES Director,Orange County ORANGE COUNTY • � * ��r �