Recently, we were honored to receive a grant from the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) to help small businesses access available COVID-19 resources.
Through this program, we will reach out to the 780 small businesses in our service area by December 31st. This initiative will help us carry out our mission of advancing sustainable economic development and ensuring the North Branch remains a great place to work and do business.
And while we can always provide customized support to meet the specific needs of area businesses, some of the programs we will share with businesses include:
In case you haven’t seen it, we held a webinar with many of our partners that provided an overview of COVID-19 programs for businesses. Please watch the webinar here and see the slide deck.
In addition, we are thrilled to announce that North Branch Works will make four $2,500 grants to small businesses by December 31st.
To be eligible for this random drawing, a business must partner with us on accessing a COVID-19 resource and complete a one-page intake form from BACP.
The drawing for these grants is tentatively scheduled for the last week of December 2021.
The new grant from BACP allowed us to hire two temporary staff who will lead the initial outreach for the program. Our dedicated new staff include Nandu Dubey, Jules Voigt, and Molly Delaney.
Also, our SARFS Program Manager, Misty LeBlanc, will make outreach calls.
Our team will contact you with information about how you can plug into our network and access support services. In the meantime, please reach out to us and we’ll do our best to connect you to available resources.
If you are a small business in the North Branch area and would like to enter our drawing for the grants, please contact Steve Simmons at 7773-929-5552 x2226 or steve@northbranchworks.org:10033.
