Three years since COVID-19 forced local businesses to close their doors, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber is still working to help them recover. A big part of that mission is working with the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City to administer funds received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). CHAMBER WORKS WITH ALLIANCE TO HELP BUSINESSES RECOVER FROM PANDEMIC
providing residents with the opportunity to participate in the 21st century economy more fully.” For a small business or nonprofit to be eligible for ARPA funding, they must meet certain criteria. First, the business must be located within the city limits of Oklahoma City. Second, the business owner must also be able to show one of the following: the pandemic had a negative impact on their business, their organization is in a federally designated low-income area, or the business is at least 51% minority owned. Over 70% of the businesses participating in the ARPA programs are minority-owned small businesses. The Alliance did intentional outreach to minority communities and worked with key partners such as the Black Chamber, Latino Community Development Agency, Northeast Oklahoma City Renaissance, and the Asian Cultural District Association, to push out information about the programs. The OKC Rescue Program, operated by The Alliance, offers pandemic relief funding to small businesses and entrepreneurs geared toward things like technical assistance and façade and storefront improvements. Small businesses also have benefited from what is referred to as pandemic mitigation, meaning businesses can make certain physical improvements to their business location to help them respond to COVID-19. A good example of that is installing a drive-thru lane to increase sales.
The Alliance was asked to help with allocating $20 million of ARPA funds to small businesses, non-profits, minority-owned small businesses and workforce development programs. The Alliance worked with the Chamber’s Economic Development division on an economic resiliency analysis of Oklahoma City. A key finding from the report is that minority-owned small businesses are underrepresented in the business community relative to their proportion in the population. The Alliance used the information from the report to guide their efforts. Their goal is to increase support for those who historically have not been able to get access to resources and funding. Jeff Seymour, the Chamber’s executive vice president for economic development, serves in an advisory role for several Alliance-related projects. “We have appreciated working in partnership with the Alliance, City and numerous others to bring to fruition programming that continues to respond to the post-pandemic realities of Oklahoma City and meet the community where they are related to economic capacity, resiliency and need,” said Seymour. “We know that as Oklahoma City evolves, our work must center on building capacity for small/diverse businesses and
The Alliance also contracts with a number of partners to run several business accelerator programs designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs find capital, increase sales, and improve business processes. Selected participants also receive advice on strategy, proposals, finance, human resources, marketing and more. To learn more about these and other programs, visit the Alliance website at okcrescueprogram.com.
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