LYNN — The Lynn Education District, a collaborative of academic institution members, city officials and organization leaders, held a meeting at the Demakes Family YMCA Monday afternoon on how best to utilize funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Nichol Figueiredo, chief executive officer of Capital Strategic Solutions, gave a presentation to the collaborative on what projects can be funded.
Joel Abramson, a co-founder of the Lynn Education District, said improving the city’s approach to mental health was a priority for him and he would like to see American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding be allocated toward improving it.
“Mental health, anxiety, depression — that’s where I want to see improvement,” Abramson said. “That is a huge priority for me and the rest of the collaborative.”
Abramson said that the integration of improving mental health would focus on K-12 public schools, after-school programs and hiring more trained technicians to help kids who are experiencing mental health-related issues.
“The biggest priority that encompasses every organization is more support for mental-health issues,” Abramson said. “This includes technicians, social workers, education and treatment facilities.”
The City of Lynn was allocated $75 million from ARPA and has $58 million left to allocate.
To date, the city has dedicated $13.5 million to improving the air quality in its municipal-owned buildings by replacing and upgrading the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems throughout public buildings in Lynn. The city will use $500,000 to purchase rapid COVID-19 antigen test kits and $3 million is being allocated to the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn (EDIC/Lynn) for small-business relief grants.
Another $800,000 will be allocated for citywide translators to optimize community input and participation.
Mayor Jared Nicholson and the City Council are holding community meetings and distributing surveys for Lynn residents to weigh in on what projects are a priority for them. The first of these meetings was held Monday night in Ward 4; two other ward meetings are scheduled for later this week.
“Our mission right now is to educate and gather feedback about these funds, and then we will launch requests for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) projects,” Figueiredo said. “Some of the priorities the city wants to spend the funding on include mental health, improving public health and individual assistance.”
Some of the collaborative members asked Figueiredo about what the process of spending these funds entails — namely how and when the funds will be distributed.
Laurie Hamill, executive director of Camp Fire North Shore, which provides after- and in-school resources for Lynn Public Schools students, asked about when the request for projects would be submitted and how her organization would be able to receive possible funding.
Figueiredo estimated that the requests would be sent in the early summer, but the funds can only be distributed if the City Council approves a request through a vote.
“It all depends on when the City Council puts it to a vote,” she said. “That could be in the fall if I had to guess.”
