Scott County and the Scott County Community Development Agency (CDA) know that people throughout our community are financially hurting. Virtually every sector of the American economy is reeling from the continued fallout from the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, including small businesses owners, entrepreneurs, farmers, and those who are self-employed.
As such, to help ease these financial burdens, the Scott County Board of Commissioners allocated $5.5 million to support local small businesses that have experienced financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically targeting local businesses who have not received assistance from other pandemic-related programs and businesses who have impacts that have exceeded other assistance received.
In addition to licensed in-home childcare providers, local business assistance is being offered through the following targeted areas:
Up to $7,500 for self-employed entrepreneurs that have no employees and have a physical location for their business in Scott County other than their personal residence.
Up to $15,000 grant for small businesses based on economic injury from COVID-19 and eligible expenses.
Up to $25,000 grant for local for-profit farming operations based on economic injury from COVID-19 and eligible expenses.
Scott County and Scott County CDA are working with NextStage (Program Administrator), a local non-profit business, to collect and review the applications, and award program grants. This initiative is being funded by Scott County’s allocation from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Eligibility requirements, application materials, deadlines, and other information are available at https://scottcda.org/resource/scott-county-business-recovery-program/ -- but interested applicants are encouraged to act quickly, as submissions will be accepted starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19 through 5 p.m. Thursday, August 27 (the eligibility requirements for licensed in-home childcare providers are somewhat different, and are also detailed on the CDA website link above).
As we all work through this global health and economic crisis, know that there is help available. We will get through this… together.