Item:
Title
Transfer of $18,000 Between Approved ARPA Awards from Knox Street Studios to Forward Cities to Provide Additional Small Business Counseling Services
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: May 12, 2025
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to approve the transfer of $18,000 between ARPA approved awards from Knox Street Studios to Forward Cities to provide additional small business counseling services.
As part of the Board's strategic plan for administering the County's American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding, the Board initially authorized the use of $1,500,000 to implement a comprehensive entrepreneurial ecosystem that included targeted support for small businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic. After the applications were reviewed, staff recommended, and the Board approved the initial award to Forward Cities (FC), as well as a second grant award of $750,000 to Knox St. Studios (KSS). Funding for both awards was approved by the BOCC on December 11, 2023. The FC contract was approved on March 25, 2024, and the KSS contract was approved on April 29, 2024. Both contracts have an end date of June 30,2026.
The transfer will increase the Forward Cities award to $1,518,000. The $18,000 will be utilized to provide 300 hours of small business counseling that will be administered by Forward Cities E3 Durham Navigators. FC Navigators are currently providing general counseling services and are best positioned to deliver this program component that was originally in the KSS contract. As a result, the KSS contract will also be modified with similar offsets that reflect the change in funding award.
In September 2023, Durham County issued a Request for Proposal for a Small Business Support Program (RFP) to create and maintain a comprehensive entrepreneurial support system that provides targeted support for qualifying small business operating in Durham County. The two main priorities of the RFP were to (1) Establish and Maintain an Entrepren...
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