Agenda 04-05-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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10 1 amount of money available to them to supply to businesses. She said it is good for them to have 2 expert support. 3 Steve Brantley said they are fortunate that grant money is supported by Chapel Hill and 4 Carrboro where they have new grant programs made available by ARPA or accrued funding. 5 He said the county is the only organization that has funding available for farms or food 6 processors. He said that if there is more funding available that they would make more grants or 7 larger grants. He said the biggest difference between the agricultural grants and the other 8 businesses is a timing one. He said people in agriculture have a different cycle in when they 9 need funding. He said that other small business applicants do not have the same cyclicality. He 10 said that brand new startup type ventures are not really allowed with the guidelines. He said 11 there are funds available that have never been used and they are proposing to move it to allow 12 startups to be able to use it. He said they want to grow businesses with less than 12 months 13 operating history. He said the county is reinvesting in the community with economic 14 development. 15 Sharron Hill presented virtually for the Chapel Hill Orange County Visitors Bureau 16 Advisory Board. She said they moved to 308 West Franklin Street. She shared a video from 17 musician James Taylor that will play continuously at the visitor's bureau. She said that tourists 18 are returning to Chapel Hill. She said staff has completed a 2022 event and meeting guide. 19 She shared a new draft website that highlights the diversity of the area. She said they are going 20 to update language on the website to include the term BIPOC. She asked that people contact 21 the visitor's bureau with events that they would like highlighted. 22 Laurie Paolicelli of the Visitors Bureau, thanked Sharron Hill and Commissioner McKee 23 for serving on the advisory board. She said that there are also twelve other videos, including 24 Coach Brown, Governor Cooper, and Lewis Brown, all the mayors, and Chair Price. She said 25 they hope to have a grand opening for their new space after UNC Chapel Hill's graduation. She 26 said they are going after meeting planners now because the biggest struggle is mid-week. 27 Frances Castillo presented for the Human Relations Commission. She said that they 28 have spent a lot of time partnering with other organizations and working on community 29 development. She said they worked to educate tenants and landlords on their rights and 30 responsibilities. She said they collaborated with UNC Humanities K-12 and created a Pauli 31 Murray curriculum. She said that teachers can use the lesson plan and it is being used even 32 outside of North Carolina. She said they are beginning to publish documents in languages other 33 than English. She said that in 2021 they hosted the Pauli Murray awards, a community 34 conversation on defunding the police, letters to the editors on defunding police and violence 35 against the Asian Americans. She said they also took a month to dedicate to community 36 education on how to be a good advocate. She said that the upcoming year will be interesting as 37 they begin in-person meetings. She said that there are many issues, and they are putting 38 together resources to help the community address those. She said they want everyone on the 39 commission to go through GARE training. She said they have started attending the state human 40 relation commission meetings. She said that they want to address women's health and 41 women's economic opportunities. She said they want to work more with other advisory boards 42 and commissions. 43 Commissioner Richards said they passed a resolution supporting Orange County 44 schools. She said in the resolution they asked for help from the commission in how they can 45 move forward with broader conversations in the community. She said she just wanted to remind 46 everyone about that desire. She said she wanted to work with the commission on how to move 47 the county forward. She also said they would like help on diversifying boards. 48 Frances Castillo said there is a board diversity subcommittee that is studying that 49 subject. She said they are soliciting information from advisory boards about ethnicity of 50 members. She said they are also trying to make sure the human relations commission is 51 diverse.