At today’s County Commission meeting, the Dougherty County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the acceptance of the 2021 Georgia County Internship Program (GCIP) Grant from the Association of County Commissioners in Georgia (ACCG) Civic Affairs Foundation in the amount of $2,607.60. The grant is designed to provide a summer internship for the Community Development Block Grant, Disaster Recovery (CDBG- DR) Program.

The intern will assist with the implementation and development of the CDBG-DR Grant, which is a new division within the Dougherty County Administration Department. Additionally, he or she will work closely with the Grant Manager and Assistant Grant Managers in their offices located at 225 Pine Avenue, as well as potential field work around the grant.

Some of the duties the intern will perform include assisting in the creation of marketing strate- gies, training and technical assistance in the field of housing, economic development, and/or community development, services supporting housing, community and economic development programs that are part of the overall disaster recovery efforts, learning the applicable Federal regulations and requirements and understanding how they interplay with program design, imple- mentation and oversight of recovery programs, and many others.

“This grant intern will gain much experience from this project,” said Dominique Hall, Dougherty County Director of Human Resources. “It will provide opportunities for the intern to grow, learn and develop skills as they tackle the development of this start-up department, giving them a sense of ownership and accomplishment from being involved during the development stages,

as well as establishing a sense of pride in helping the City of Albany and Dougherty County citi- zens,” she said.

In 2017, Dougherty County faced the challenge of recovering from two Presidentially Declared natural disasters within the month of January. In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma dealt a devastating blow to areas that were still in recovery from the January storms. The CDBG-DR grant funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), provides the City and County with the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Housing/New Housing Develop- ment, Infrastructure and Public Facilities repairs, and Economic Revitalization.

For more information about the CDBG-DR Grant, visit https://www.dougherty.ga.us/govern- ment/departments/disaster-recovery.