Salem $3 Million COVID-19 ARPA Funding To Target Public, Mental Health

SALEM, MA — The next round of Salem's American Rescue Plan Act funding will go to organizations and programs designed to deal with the public health, mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion discrepancies in the city.

Mayor Kim Driscoll said on Tuesday that more than $3 million of federal COVID-19 funding will go toward health-focused causes, including more than $1 million to fund the construction of the expanded-capacity behavioral health services department at the new Salem Family Health Center being built in the El Centro building at the intersection of Lafayette Street and Derby Street.

"We are working to prioritize those areas of our community most deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Driscoll, who will become the state's next lieutenant governor in January. "Some of the most critical challenges we face are related to public and mental health, and our ongoing work around equity and inclusion."

The city said that $1.145 million will go toward the North Shore Community Health Center capital grant for its new SFHC behavioral health services department, which will allow for the significant expansion of services, including family and pediatric psychiatry and the addition of more treatment rooms.

The city will also allocate $430,000 to the Plummer Youth Promise Rebuilding Families Campus project program designed to drive at-risk youth toward family, stability and success.

The city will direct $386,388 toward ongoing COVID-19 response measures, including free, rapid antigen tests for residents and public schools vaccination clinics.

The city will direct $250,000 toward the new Salem Equity Grant program that supports nonprofit organizations and agencies that benefit historically underserved and underrepresented communities.

The maximum grant award for any one entity is $25,000 with guidelines and applications available here.

There will also be $250,000 in funding for the new Salem Mental Health Access Grant program, which helps youth sports organizations, community support organizations, addiction support organizations, nonprofit providers, clinicians, and similar organizations that help offset costs for mental health and mental health-adjacent programming for Salem residents.

The maximum grant award for any one entity in this award is also $25,000 with guidelines and applications available here.

There will also be $200,000 spent on 75 defibrillators at publicly accessible locations through the Salem Fire Department, $185,000 for emergency shelters for victims of domestic violence, $72,000 for the city's Race Equity Action Plan, $45,000 for a public dispenser of COVID test kits, Narcan, masks, contraception and menstrual products at City Hall and City Hall Annex as well as two locations to be determined, and $32,000 for additional Spanish language translation of city documents and websites, real-time interpretation of city board and committee meetings and COVID-19 mitigation measures.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)