As communities nationwide reel from the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19, the Institute for Policy Research and Engagement—which originated in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management—has been investigating how to best help communities recover.

The institute helped produce the free recovery blueprint, ROCKit (the “Resource Organizer for COVID Kit”), which focuses on how to help vulnerable populations and economic sectors hit hardest by the pandemic at city, county, and state levels.

“The time for recovery planning is now—even though we’re still in the throes of responding to the pandemic,” said Robert Parker, the IPRE Director of Strategy and Technical Solutions. “Each day that passes without a plan will lengthen the recovery period for local communities. ROCKit is a clear recovery strategy easily unpacked and implemented by local government, health care, and community leaders.”

IPRE partnered with X4 Health, a social impact organization focused on improving health care, to develop ROCKit and a related implementation white paper that “consolidated the best COVID-19 recovery planning work from around the country into one health and economic recovery guide.”

Learn more about the project in the Associated Press press announcement “Nation's First Comprehensive COVID-19 Recovery Planning Tool Open to All U.S. Communities.”