The Evanston City Council narrowly voted Monday to approve funding for the ASPIRE-Evanston Community Healthcare Workforce Development Program, with aldermen agreeing to use money from the city’s allotment of federal coronavirus relief funds.
This year’s funding for the program will come from the American Rescue Plan Act funds the city received in 2021. Of the $43 million in ARPA money allocated to Evanston, approximately $5.5 million has been spent, according to city documents.
According to city documents, Northshore University Health System will be providing a $200,000 investment into the ASPIRE program and hopes the city will match that investment. With the combined $400,000, the program proposes creating a pipeline for Evanston’s workforce aimed at young residents, according to officials.
Through the ASPIRE program, students and young adults in Evanston would have the opportunity to receive “training, internships, certifications, tuition reimbursements, and other tactics to support the exploration, launch and acceleration of healthcare careers by community members,” according to a city memorandum.
The funding proposal for the ASPIRE health care workforce program was approved by the Economic Development Committee on Jan. 26, chaired by Ald. Peter Braithwaite, 2nd Ward. He said that the committee developed its own criteria when considering proposals for ARPA funds.
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“I want to say three months ago in economic development, we reinvented the wheel and we talked about our own process for how we fund a project,” Braithwaite said. “Everyone was in agreement, and … we went through a checklist of the things we thought were important for funding.”
The full City Council approved the measure on a 5-4 vote.
At the meeting Monday, the council also extensively discussed whether the measure for ASPIRE funding should be approved if there has not been a comprehensive strategy developed for how the city would spend ARPA funds. Some of the money has already been spent on immediate needs like COVID-19 relief and debt relief.
“I have requested for several months now a more strategic and thoughtful approach on how we’re going to address our ARPA-related decisions,” said Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward. “If we don’t have one now, maybe this is as good as it’s going to get, so I’m prepared to start spending the money rather than keep asking for a plan.”
Aldermen continued to discuss whether they should be spending the ARPA funds or wait for a comprehensive plan. Interim City Manager Kelly Gandurski stepped in and explained the work her staff has done to move the ARPA funding forward.
“No one on council can agree on anything fully, and I understand that,” Gandurski said. “There are nine different opinions and nine communities represented here. Staff has spent countless hours … where we sat and [discussed] the buckets and the different policy considerations with regard to each bucket.”
Gandurski also said that the city tried to hire a project manager to deal with the ARPA money – like other cities across the country did – but only received one application for the job.
Emily Little is a freelancer.