By : REBEKAH ALLEN
Source : http://theadvocate.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Officials with the Baton Rouge city-parish government are stepping up efforts to reach out to small and disadvantaged businesses to stimulate local job growth and encourage more opportunities for smaller companies to obtain public contracts.
The city-parish is launching “Business with Baton Rouge,” a program designed to support small businesses with training, mentorships and loans.
The program is funded by two grants. The first was a Small Business Administration grant for $271,500 that funds a point person for business development, said Chip Boyles, director of the Office of Community Development.
Stacie Williams, the former regional manager for the Louisiana Minority Supplier Development Council and the Minority Business Opportunity Center, was hired in December to take on the city-parish’s new position.
“Our business development coordinator can take the city-parish to the next level in our efforts to grow a strong business climate in East Baton Rouge Parish,” Mayor-President Kip Holden said in a news release.
“This grant provides us the resources to strengthen the pool of qualified small businesses by providing workshops, one-on-one consulting and other partnerships that provide the networking opportunities and helping hand some small-business owners need to achieve success,” Holden said.
The other grant is worth $4.2 million and was issued through a Hurricane Gustav/Ike Community Development Block Grant that will be used to partner with regional nonprofits SEEDCO and ACCION to allocate small business loans, Boyles said.
Some of that grant also will be used to partner with Southern University’s Small Business Development Center to provide training and assistance with startup or expansion plans for business owners and entrepreneurs.
The block grant is intended to target low-income neighborhoods with businesses that were financially affected by Hurricane Gustav.
“These businesses were already working from a disadvantage, but after Gustav hit, the businesses suffered even more by not having electricity or because of damages to the building,” Boyles said. “A number of the businesses had unplanned expenses and they had a difficult time recovering.”
Williams has been preparing the city-parish’s small business certification process, which will create a directory for the city-parish and for prime companies looking for disadvantaged business subcontractors to identify companies that are ready and able to work, she said.
An inhouse certification process is used by many other cities, Williams said. The city-parish will unveil its certification process in April, she said.
Metro Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards is one of several council members who has for months expressed concerns about the city-parish’s inclusion of small and disadvantaged businesses.
“When you analyze how many people are getting professional service contracts and low-bid contracts, it’s typically the same people over and over,” Edwards said. “Small businesses are getting locked out.”
Edwards said the city-parish has an obligation to be more inclusive, and the companies receiving public contracts should be more reflective of the overall demographics of the parish.
Edwards said she thought hiring Williams was a move in the right direction.
“We’re beginning to see more movement and glimpses of changes, but we want to see more substantive participation,” Edwards said.
Source : http://theadvocate.com/news/2363236-123/city-parish-reaching-out-to-small
