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Webinar | Minority small business owners: Apply to $225 million Pa. program for COVID-19 recovery

Thursday, July 2, 2020 9:00 am

Essential information for minority small business owners navigating through funding programs for COVID-19 economic recovery

View webinar (recorded July 2, 2020):

As southwestern Pennsylvania begins its economic recovery from the unprecedented public health crisis brought on by COVID-19, minority small business owners across the region have been especially hard hit.

To meet their need for expert guidance and access to funding, The Pittsburgh Black Elected Officials Coalition welcomes The Pittsburgh Foundation and presenting organizations listed below in offering a 90-minute webinar. The purpose is to help minority small business owners tap into a $225 million economic assistance fund, of which $100 million has been reserved especially for Historically Disadvantaged Businesses.

That recovery funding announced by Gov. Tom Wolf on June 8 is open to minority-owned businesses across the state. The application window opens June 30.

The webinar will feature a panel of experts covering all aspects of the Small Business Assistance Program. With an emphasis on practical guidance, presenters will help attendees:

  • Learn how the program is structured.
  • Understand the range of benefits provided.
  • Review the criteria for application.
  • Develop a check list for successful application.

Presenters:

  • T.J. Bogdewic, President and CEO, Bridgeway Capital;
  • Dennis Davin, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development;
  • David A. Kahley, President & CEO, The Progress Fund – Tourism; 
  • Mark Masterson, Executive Director, Northside Community Development Fund;
  • Lisa Schroeder, President and CEO, The Pittsburgh Foundation;
  • Diamonte Walker, Deputy Director, Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh; 
  • Neil Weaver, Executive Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development;
  • Jake Wheatley, PA State Rep., D-19, Convener of The Pittsburgh Black Elected Officials Coalition.

Presenting Organizations and Agencies: Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Development Financial Institutions, State Department of Community and Economic Development, Pittsburgh office of Jones Day, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

Since the first days of the public health and economic crises created by COVID-19, Pittsburgh’s foundations and its elected officials have been working together to deliver emergency aid to those most vulnerable to health and financial injury. Part of that effort has included providing essential information to nonprofit leaders to help them meet increased service demand and to preserve their own organizations.

Now, in pivoting to the longer-term recovery work, we want to provide similar guidance to minority small business owners who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

We are collaborating on this webinar so that minority small business owners have the best opportunity to benefit from the largest government recovery program enacted to date that is earmarked directly for them. Beyond the webinar, we are committed to working together to treat the economic crisis as a community opportunity to address systemic racism and other societal factors that have made minority-owned small businesses vulnerable in the region’s small-business ecosystem.