Three School of Government projects funded by NC Policy Collaboratory

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Headshots of Anita Brown-Graham, Margaret Henderson, and Erin Riggs

The NC Policy Collaboratory at UNC-Chapel Hill has distributed $29 million toward 85 research projects focused on treatment, community testing, and prevention of COVID-19. Three projects at the School of Government were selected to receive funds.

The projects are:

Testing the Keys to North Carolina’s Economic Recovery
Lead researcher: Anita Brown-Graham, Professor of Public Law and Government and Director, ncIMPACT Initiative
Due to state enforced economic shut-downs, local governments are seeing a stark decline in revenue as a product of reduced retail, tourism, and restaurant activity as well as an increasing unemployment rate. This study seeks to aggregate the data of two existing databases (NC Growth and ncIMPACT) to measure the effectiveness of government actions and testing in the recovery of the North Carolina economy for individual communities.

Identifying and Mitigating the Financial Impact on Water and Wastewater Utilities
Lead researcher: Erin Riggs, Executive Director, Environmental Finance Center
To combat the growing financial pressures on North Carolina’s utility sector after the state passed a moratorium on utility shut offs in late March 2020, this project will fund direct technical assistance and develop financial tools to aid North Carolina local governments. This project is led by the Environmental Finance Center.

Virtual Connections for Public Officials Charged with Protecting Older Adults
Lead researcher: Margaret Henderson, Lecturer in Public Administration and Director, Public Intersection Project
Because COVID-19 particularly impacts elderly adults who are already vulnerable to physical and mental health risks, isolation from resources, and financial exploitation and scams, this project hopes to build multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) to coordinate virtual resources and tools for the North Carolina elderly community. This project is part of the North Carolina Elder Protection Network.

Research projects funded by the Collaboratory are intended to provide data and information to North Carolina lawmakers and policymakers in an effort to shape the state’s pandemic response. The Collaboratory will deliver a status update to the North Carolina General Assembly in September on the projects, which are spread across 14 UNC System campuses. A full list of projects can be found on the Collaboratory website.

Funding for the projects comes from a $1.5 billion coronavirus relief package approved by state legislators and signed by Governor Roy Cooper.

The School has worked closely with North Carolina’s local governments on the frontlines of COVID-19 response since early spring. Since early March, School faculty have penned 86 free blog posts and hosted 32 conference calls on pandemic response for local officials. Topics have included public health law, employment law, procurement, teleworking, budgeting, utilities, emergency loans for small businesses, and more. View collected resources and guidance on the School’s COVID-19 microsite here.