Scope of Work for EDA Economic Development Districts and EDA Indian Tribe Planning Grant Recipients

Under this EDA’s CARES Act Recovery Assistance letter invitation for application, an EDA-designated Economic Development District (EDD) or an Indian Tribe that is a current EDA partnership planning grant recipient (Indian Tribe) may apply for funding under one or more of the following Scope of Work elements that has been pre-approved by EDA, based on past planning- and disaster-related grant awards:

An EDA Award to an EDD or Indian Tribe shall support authorized activities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, or respond to economic injury as a result of coronavirus, and shall include one or more of the following pre-approved grant activities that shall focus on the geographic region within the EDD or Tribal territory:

1. Short-term and long-term economic development planning and coordination to develop or update a disaster recovery and resiliency economic development plan, focused on pandemic recovery and resiliency, consistent with the approved CEDS maintained by the recipient. Alternatively, rather than a separate plan, the CEDS itself can be updated to include a focus on pandemic recovery or resiliency based on the existing or anticipated COVID-19 impact, general needs, and capacities of the EDD or Indian Tribe;
2. Funding for one or more regional disaster economic recovery coordinators for a two-year period to serve the communities and local governments across the geographic region within the EDD or Tribal territory. Disaster recovery coordinators will also serve as a liaison in identifying potential resiliency, mitigation, and economic recovery projects in the disaster-impacted areas. Additional work elements of the position will include but not be limited to the following:
   1. Implement economic recovery and resilience plans with the goal of rebuilding resilient and sustainable communities throughout the organization’s region;
   2. Assist in local, state, and federally led coronavirus recovery planning efforts among the most highly impacted communities;
   3. Help identify economic development grant-eligible projects with state and federal resources for locally impacted communities to ensure these entities take full advantage of available funding opportunities;
   4. Identify and foster private and non-profit partnership opportunities;
   5. Serve as a liaison between local, state, and federal partners in order to speed the recovery process through strategic technical assistance and local capacity augmentation for the highly impacted communities within the organization’s jurisdiction; and
   6. Facilitate the implementation of locally generated disaster recovery economic development projects developed as part of the CEDS or CEDS-aligned economic recovery and resilience plan;
3. Technical Assistance and capacity building for member organizations, local businesses, and other local stakeholders impacted by coronavirus; and/or
4. Organizational capacity support for coronavirus response, including technology costs and personnel costs for staff members directly working on or supporting the work of the organization’s coronavirus-related economic development response, including additional hiring as needed.