Dougherty County Administrator, Michael McCoy, is scheduled to represent Dougherty County and the state of Georgia at the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Leadership Conference to be held September 24-26, 2019, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

McCoy, one of only two representatives from Georgia to attend, will receive a scholarship to cover
travel and lodging that is provided by the Wal-Mart Foundation.

Managed by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), Albany and Dougherty County is
one of several cities and counties in Georgia set to receive a portion of the grant with a share of $64.9 million, which is funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The grant is designed to help cities, counties, and States recover from Presidentially declared disasters, especially in low-income areas, and assist the affected areas in rebuilding and recovering. The special appropriation provides funds to the most impacted and distressed areas for disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure, housing, and economic revitalization. Funding for Albany and Dougherty County includes damage suffered from the two tornadoes of 2017 and Hurricane Irma.

“I am humbled by this opportunity and will represent our community and organization well,” said Michael McCoy, Dougherty County Administrator. “We are fortunate to receive this type of funding to further assist our city and county in the recovery of the natural disasters of 2017.”

The conference is dedicated to assisting Strategic Leaders in reducing the time from Disaster to Recovery.  With a diverse audience with grantees in different stages of their grant, the course curriculum and training agenda includes topics such as Leadership and Decision Making in Disaster Recovery; The Anatomy of a Disaster and Recovery; Options on Building a Recovery Strategy; Organizational Effectiveness in Disaster Recovery; Action Planning and Amendments; Developing a Mitigation Strategy; and more.

At the end of the conference, attendees will be required to take a final examination of the materials covered in the three-day duration. Upon successful completion of the examination, attendees will receive a CDBG-DR Graduation Certificate.