While every major emergency declaration for COVID-19 has now ended, the work at the North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office remains vital to an equitable and resilient recovery. Over the course of three years, the state’s pandemic response has shifted from crisis mitigation – distributing funds for urgent needs like PPE and rental assistance – to creating long-term, sustainable solutions to the economic impacts of COVID-19, especially in historically underserved communities. The $11 billion in federal relief funds that NCPRO oversees remain instrumental to that mission.
Created in Crisis
Stephanie McGarrah has served as Executive Director since May 2020, after the North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Roy Cooper established NCPRO as a division of the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM). This was in direct response to the passage of the $2.2 trillion federal CARES Act, which included $3.6 billion in Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) for North Carolina. McGarrah’s first priority was to lead the swift distribution of CRF to over 1,700 state agencies, local governments, nonprofits, hospitals, and schools.
“It was a whirlwind when I started at NCPRO,” says Executive Director Stephanie McGarrah. “Much of the work was being conducted without real-time data, so NCPRO learned to be creative in order to get feedback on funding needs and how well programs were working.”
She worked closely with OSBM’s Internal Audit Director Barbara Baldwin, who had already gotten to work drawing down and distributing the first funds appropriated by lawmakers while NCPRO hired staff.
“We removed all the red tape possible to move quickly and be nimble,” says Baldwin.
Driven to Serve North Carolina
That urgency would continue to underpin NCPRO’s mission throughout 2020, as COVID-19 cases rose alongside unemployment. CRF played an integral role in providing the financial resources that local and state leaders, as well as individuals and families, needed to weather one of the most difficult chapters in state history. Communications Program Manager Lou Owoc-Edwards, who was hired as NCPRO’s first Executive Assistant, says those challenging circumstances led to an even stronger sense of duty.
“It never felt like a question of if we could do this work that was set before us, but how we would accomplish it with the resources we had,” says Lou Owoc-Edwards.
As one of NCPRO’s first Grant Specialists, John Leskovec saw the impact firsthand as he communicated frequently with CRF recipients, who in turn were able to help many more people.
“NCPRO’s work has affected every citizen in the state,” says Leskovec. “I personally saw what state government can achieve.”
While NCPRO was originally intended to dissolve at the end of 2020, the agency’s unique expertise and substantial role in the state’s pandemic recovery progress would lead to the entrustment of several additional COVID-19 relief funds and programs. That included the administration of Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA), first established under the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act. It provided the state with $546 million to assist households that were unable to pay rent or utilities. Reporting and Strategic Initiatives Manager Andy MacCracken also worked closely with the Office of the Governor to develop the Longleaf Commitment Grant, which launched using Governors Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds to provide students with a tuition-free community college education during a period of falling enrollment. Many of those students have since graduated with their degrees, setting them up for a brighter future that may not have otherwise been accessible.
“The funds we manage will last for another few years,” says MacCracken, “and NCPRO’s success will shape how well we have set up communities for a strong recovery and resilient future.”
Shifting to Long-term Recovery
The landmark American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021 further expanded ERA, GEER, and other COVID-19 relief programs, while also providing North Carolina with $5.4 billion in State Fiscal Recovery Funds (SFRF). State leaders and NCPRO leveraged SFRF as an opportunity to shift beyond relief, and plan for a stronger and more resilient future. McGarrah says that included, and continues to include, an emphasis on addressing the inequities worsened or exposed by COVID-19.
“Our work is to make sure that we continue to help all North Carolinians – regardless of location or background – adjust to the changes that the pandemic thrust upon them so that they and their communities can thrive,” says McGarrah.
In 2022, NCPRO solicited and reviewed plans for over 150 State Fiscal Recovery Fund projects aimed at addressing disparities in education, creating new workforce opportunities, helping small businesses, and funding historic investments in water, sewer, and broadband access. While some of these projects have since been completed, many remain underway in 2023, and nearly $3 billion in infrastructure projects have also begun to take shape.
As NCPRO enters its fourth year, it’s now working to launch a robust new performance measure framework to help state agency partners better identify and quantify the positive impacts of their SFRF projects. Chief of Staff Jamilla Hawkins, who has been part of NCPRO from the beginning, says this new initiative would not be possible without the cooperation and commitment of our state agency partners.
“This partnership has proven to be successful on so many levels and gives us an opportunity to see what can be achieved when we work together during the most challenging of times,” says Hawkins.
Now as we look to tell the stories of how this once-in-a-generation funding has ultimately created a positive impact on the lives of North Carolinians, the performance measure data we are collecting will help guide this conversation and position our state to make data-driven decisions for the future.