ARPA funds help Chess and Community expand robotics, debates and youth supports in Athens-Clarke County

Chess and Community used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to expand Project Rewire, a suite of robotics, debate, civic learning and chess programs that the group says has reached hundreds of students in Athens-Clarke County.

The support has let the nonprofit scale collaborative programming, hire local staff and build fundraising tools while also exposing limits: federal grant rules, rising insurance costs and family housing instability that can cut young people off from services.

Cameron McLaughlin, Equity and Engagement Coordinator in the People and Belonging Department for Athens-Clarke County, introduced the ARPA Highlights episode and framed the funds as a way the county distributed federal relief to local organizations. The podcast invited Lemuel Life LaRoche, executive director of Chess and Community and program director at Youth Force Innovation Hub, to describe how the money was used and what the organization learned.

LaRoche said ARPA support enabled a collective-impact approach that pooled small local nonprofits so programs would not “operate in their own silo.” He described an early collaborative network —…