City of Columbia asking residents and visitors to answer a survey to help decide on how to spend ARPA funds

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia City leaders and the Columbia Boone County Health Department is encouraging residents and people who frequent the city to take a survey to help decide where the city's COVID-19 relief funds should go.

The city has $12.6 million left of the $25.2 million to address inequalities and areas of need exposed by the pandemic. The goal is for the survey to reach as many people as possible so they can really narrow down what areas of need are most important to fund.

The survey is completely anonymous and does ask several questions such as race, gender, income and demographic.

"We just want to be sure that we are getting everyone in our community to take this survey and the only way we are going to see gaps is if we ask some of those questions," Kari Utterback, the Senior Planner with the Columbia/Boone County health department said.

The survey will help the city and health department learn what groups it is not reaching, and then work to reach out and hear from those groups.

The survey asks questions on how income was negatively impacted by the pandemic, and what was the biggest challenge overcoming the pandemic.

Once the survey closes at the end of June, the city's community engagement process will start by creating focus groups.

"Focus groups the goal is really to get those individuals groups and entities that can help us touch on some of those topics plus the individuals that were adversely impacted," Sydney Olsen, spokeswoman for the City of Columbia.

The city will form 10 focus groups seven will be in person and three on zoom. The groups will include trusted members of the community that are familiar with an area of need, plus those most impacted.

The health department said the hope is to have the survey and focus groups completed by August.

All the ARPA money must be spent by the end of 2024.

City Council voted to spend the first half of this funding on the issues of homelessness, community violence, behavioral crisis care mental health services and workforce development. 

The survey is available in paper copies at city hall, the library, the food bank and food clinics coming up.

People can call into the city to do the survey over the phone or find it online.