COVID-19 Small & Small Diverse Business and Community Taskforce (2SDB&C Taskforce) has been created to provide relief for rural and urban communities and small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. Business and Civic leaders throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have come together to merge their expertise and capacity to assist the underrepresented citizens and businesses within the state. Our taskforce will work diligently to ensure that small businesses can repurpose their capabilities and knowhow to support the state during these extreme circumstances, while generating revenue that ensures employment and assistance to our communities.
Our focus will be to administer a program with help from the federal government that will oversee:
Contracts: Construction of medical facilities, janitorial, security, emergency supplies, food distribution, housing assistance and work training
Capital: Deploy capital to small businesses by working with banks, community lending institutions and the federal government
Program Management: Organize volunteers to remotely work with diverse businesses to develop a recovery plan, while shutdown is in place, in addition to providing contracting and capital management expertise to allow for firms to utilize their capital effectively in order to ensure the best use of federal and private funds
It is currently estimated that over 25% of jobs will be lost in Pennsylvania, with even higher amounts registered in urban and rural communities, before this crisis ends. This task force will be the first step in helping small businesses throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by repurposing their efforts to assist the elderly, homeless, disabled and other members of the community. Our taskforce of industry and civic leaders are ready, willing and able to ensure that assistance is administered through a transparent and well managed process that delivers maximum efficacy to the federal government.