Supporting Struggling Small Businesses
The pandemic and Covid-19 mitigations began inflicting immense damage to many small businesses in March of 2020. Thousands of small businesses initially applied for Illinois Business Interruption Grants. While these grants helped some small businesses, approximately 80% of eligible small businesses which applied were not awarded a grant.
Subsequently, Illinois received over 8 billion dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds. However, only $250 million were allocated for Back to Business grant program. These funds will likely be exhausted before many struggling and eligible businesses receive grants.
Illinois still has billions of federal funds and should replenish the Back to Business grant program with an additional $300 million. Our policymakers should not pick winners and loses when there is adequate funding to support the struggling small businesses.
House Bill HB5489 will allocate an additional $300 million for the Back to Business grant program. Please ask your legislators to support this legislation so that struggling small businesses can receive the support they need to recover from a pandemic, and associated mitigations, which they could not control.
REVITALIZATION IN THE NEWS: 51st Corridor Development
Vacant land being transformed to a multi-purpose unit! A development duo on the South Side of Chicago is bringing more restaurants, retail and housing to 51st Street Corridor. This multi-purpose unit will be built on a vacant space. Developments such as this are perfect examples of what can be done with the large number of…
Thank you for attending Rebound on the Rooftop!!
THANK YOU for attending our Rebound on the Rooftop on May 11, 2022!! It was such a beautiful evening, the weather was PERFECT, and we are so glad we got to see so many of you in person again! If you weren’t able to make it, we missed you! And we hope we’ll see you…
SBAC Empower Presents: What to Ask Before Opening Your Doors
What to Ask Before You Open Your Door SBAC Empower partners with Logan Square Chamber of Commerce to present a Q&A session on Zoning, Real Estate and Funding aimed at small business owners looking to open a new business in the city of Chicago. Click on the Video to open in YouTube and jump to…
