WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – the City of Wilmington announced at its meeting Tuesday it is awarding $700,000 in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to 35 local non-profits offering arts-based programming that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.
A volunteer committee that included two representatives from city council and community members evaluated applications based on service to the community, especially underserved populations, and pandemic-related financial hardship.
“We asked community leaders to be the decision makers on where these dollars will go,” Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said. “City staff and council members played an important role, but the perspective of community leaders really shaped how we put these funds to work in the community and helped us put them to work quickly and equitably.”
The City partnered with the United Way of the Cape Fear Area and Arts Council of Wilmington/New Hanover County to oversee the application process and to distribute the grants.
The organizations, receiving up to $50,000, depending on need, are as follows:
- Big Dawg Productions
- Brigade Boys & Girls Club
- Brooklyn Arts Music Academy
- Cameron Art Museum
- Canines for Service
- Cape fear Chorale
- Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity
- Cape Fear HealthNet
- Cape Fear Literacy Council
- Child Development Center
- Community Boys & Girls Club
- Community Counseling Center
- Cucalorus Film Foundation
- Diaper Bank of North Carolina Lower Cape Fear Branch
- Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, Inc.
- Dreams of Wilmington
- Family Promise of the Lower Cape Fear
- Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC
- Forward Motion Dance Company
- Good Shepherd Center
- Leading Into New Communities
- Opera Wilmington
- So What Now, Inc.
- Soaring as Eagles
- Thalian Association
- The Carousel Center
- Theatre for All
- Turning the Wheel
- Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry
- Wilmington Art Association
- Wilmington Ballet
- Wilmington Symphony Orchestra
- Wilmington’s Residential Adolescent Achievement Place
- Working Narratives
- YWCA Lower Cape Fear
All awards are given in accordance with U.S. Treasury ARP guidance and NC General Statute authorization. The City of Wilmington received an approximately $26 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law March 11, 2021. The money will be disbursed to the city through two installments of approximately $13 million in the next two years. The funds must be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024.
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