State Grant May Help Local Businesses Hurt By COVID
Downtown businesses along South Pleasant Street, Amherst. Photo: Wikipedia. Creative Commons
Source: amherstma.gov
The Town has received a $60,000 state grant to hire a consulting firm to help local businesses cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are pleased to partner with our business community to strategize on ways to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic with a vital and robust business environment,” said Town Manager Paul Bockelman.
The grant is from the Local Rapid Recovery Program of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. The grant provides technical assistance to address the economic impacts of COVID-19 and to help communities develop immediate strategies for short-term recovery.
The grant will pay for consultation by Civic Moxie, LLC, a woman-owned business and collaborative team of planners and urban designers based in Brookline, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, Vermont. Civic Moxie has worked on various economic development projects including:
- “Waterfront Bridgeport” in Connecticut, which revitalized vacant and underutilized spaces
- “Envision Concord” in Massachusetts which facilitated a community engagement process with a master plan for the downtown
- “Creative Portland” in Maine, which helped identify strategies for creating affordable artist and nonprofit spaces