Town of Waterford Takes Action Towards Supporting Small Businesses Impacted by the Pandemic, Launches Grant Program
Using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the Town of Waterford wanted to develop and administer a Small Business and Assistance Program that would provide pandemic relief to small businesses.
Services:
Project/Program Management | Administrative Assistance
Industry:
Non-Profit
Here's the Sitch (aka Situation):
Using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the Town of Waterford wanted to develop and administer a Small Business and Assistance Program that would provide pandemic relief to small businesses. This was the first program directly supporting Waterford small businesses, and First Selectman Rob Brule along with the Economic Development Commission requested assistance.
Our Approach:
We understood that facilitating a program that adequately supports the unique infrastructures, cultures and processes found within small business models requires many interconnected pieces.
We took a well-rounded, innovative and customized approach to implementing operations management services that thoroughly assessed the specific needs of Waterford’s small businesses in order to:
ensure the shared grant materials align with legal requirements
grant information is clearly communicated and promoted to prospective applicants
the application process is conducted as seamlessly and fairly as possible
facilitate communication so that all relevant parties can be kept knowledgeable on awardees
implement administrative support to upkeep maintenance and reporting
Our Impact & Client Milestones:
Our Operations Management support enabled us to build the Town of Waterford's first Small Business program, from end-to-end and specifically:
Ensure it followed federal/ARPA policy
Facilitated community listening via a survey that gathered quantitative and qualitative data from over 50 small business owners, which was not only useful for the creation of the program but also for long-term use by the Town
Curate and host a virtual round table discussion between Town leaders and small business impacted by the pandemic, to de-mystify any concerns about the application process
Built a user-friendly submission process, which resulted in 9 complete applications
Created a user-friendly application rubric for the EDC to award $78,500 in total funding to all 9 applicants
As of January 2023, BRVC is working with the Town of Waterford to facilitate the second cohort for the program, with the remaining $105,000 ARPA funds.